> Professional programmers scoff at "old" languages like this
Old languages? Delphi is a lot newer than C. C in a mostly modern form dates from about 1977; Delphi is from 1995.
If you want to just write code in a box and have it run, maybe you should use http://sketchpad.cc/ or https://jsfiddle.net/. Or code.labstack.com, intervue.io, codepad, codiva.io, paiza.io, compilr, ideone, onlinegdb, repl.it, rextester, mycompiler, jsbin, sequential, or the other couple dozen alternatives in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_source_co.... Or ObservableHQ, which is fucking amazing. Or try.jupyter.org. Or just your browser's JavaScript console. Or ShaderToy, where you can program in GLSL. Or Philip Guo's http://PythonTutor.com/ which can step you through the execution of simple code step by step while visualizing the stack.
And Python is five years older than Delphi, too. So it's not about disdain for old languages. Python was originally developed to be easily accessible for beginners, based on Guido's experience with ABC, which was purely a teaching language, and for some time Guido's main project was CP4E, Computer Programming for Everyone. It's moved away from that in the last 15 years or so, sadly, but some aspects of it still remain.
Or you could use Delphi, install once, deploy on any platform you want, keep your sanity and you not have to worry about anything, including WTF codiva, sequential or leftpad.js are.
I love the fact that you completely ignore that a large percentage of people do not have internet access, and even if they do it can be very slow.
Just because Delphi isn't cool doesn't mean it's not useful. It can teach many concepts that students can build on if they desire to.
Heck, you're acting like the first language you learn is even important. I learnt using Visual Basic 6 and it's not like I didn't go and learn new languages by myself.
Old languages? Delphi is a lot newer than C. C in a mostly modern form dates from about 1977; Delphi is from 1995.
If you want to just write code in a box and have it run, maybe you should use http://sketchpad.cc/ or https://jsfiddle.net/. Or code.labstack.com, intervue.io, codepad, codiva.io, paiza.io, compilr, ideone, onlinegdb, repl.it, rextester, mycompiler, jsbin, sequential, or the other couple dozen alternatives in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_source_co.... Or ObservableHQ, which is fucking amazing. Or try.jupyter.org. Or just your browser's JavaScript console. Or ShaderToy, where you can program in GLSL. Or Philip Guo's http://PythonTutor.com/ which can step you through the execution of simple code step by step while visualizing the stack.
And Python is five years older than Delphi, too. So it's not about disdain for old languages. Python was originally developed to be easily accessible for beginners, based on Guido's experience with ABC, which was purely a teaching language, and for some time Guido's main project was CP4E, Computer Programming for Everyone. It's moved away from that in the last 15 years or so, sadly, but some aspects of it still remain.