It's probably evolved a bit, but when Delphi had big momentum most developers used data-bound components that updated directly from DB view queries and whatnot.

It's probably evolved a bit, but when Delphi had big momentum most developers used data-bound components that updated directly from DB view queries and whatnot. There were complex components that did transformations on the data for reporting or complex grid displays, etc, but generally you didn't see an abstract formal model behind forms/views. If you did model outside the DB, you did it in such a way that the model looked like a database table or query (subclassing abstract DB proxy components the VCL gave you) and used components directly bound to that. So, I guess in MVC terms, what you had was a form implementing View logic with components directly working from DB or DB-like data, and controller code behind the form doing event-driven manipulation. The controller code could hook data events too, and in that way reacted to "model" changes as well, but the "model" was actually hidden in DB bindings and components. For any model business logic more complex than you could handle this way, middleware was usually pushed. This may have progressed since the early 2000s when I lost track of Delphi, but the idea of directly-bound display components was typical of the dominant DB-driven 4GLs of the time, including Powerbuilder and VB.