At the time it appeared, it was more powerful than BASIC or COBOL. We learned Pascal in college and even the technically less inclined colleagues were able to do the assignments pretty well. We used Turbo Pascal, which had a decent IDE, my brother also continued to use Delphi for another ~ 10 years and loved it for being so easy to do some quick and dirty things when needed. Honestly I don't remember almost any details after 30 years, other than it was simple to use and quick to learn and write something in it, while a lot more friendly than C or C++.