Post
@codevsdev We had these things called books
They were made of paper
The docs were printed on those pages of paper
English
The basic concept isn’t that difficult. Grace Hopper learned how to code the Harvard Mark 1 in 1945 by reading the handwritten notes of her to associates. Then she put her hands on the machine and made a lot of mistakes.
I learned how to code by watching a technician toggle instructions into a front panel. I had no idea what an instruction was, or even what the architecture of a computer was, but I could infer what was going on simply by watching him, and listening to him mutter the instruction names under his breath as he toggled them in.
English
@codevsdev Markings on sheets of wood pulp, bleached and rolled out flat. Think of it as what was between cuneiform and YouTube.
English
@codevsdev you bought books, experimented a lot, and downloaded code and other stuff via BBS's pre-internet
English
@codevsdev Webpages and lots of trial and error.
And also looking up source code by hitting ctrl+u
English
@codevsdev I learned to code Java in 1996, and back then, the best online docs was the Java API class reference. My dad forced me to use that, and wouldn't answer any of my questions (as he knew Java) since the "answers are online".
That's why I teach code online now, to make it easier!
English
@codevsdev Asking other dudes on forums and trial and error
English
I learned JCL and 360 error/abend codes directly from the bits and pieces of manuals lying around the machine room and computer labs. There were docs, just no search or indexing. Between these sorts of runtime errors and batch compiler errors we learned quickly. Especially when the bug fix involved typing out a handful of new punch cards and re-inserting them into your batch deck...
English
Books, and guess what?
I was in the middle of legal documents for the largest commercial real estate deal in Houston in the late 1980s when I came in one morning to find the word processor that contained all my docs had been removed, and to see instead a PC computer. No one else in the law firm had one, only me and I had never had one class in how to use it, and I had to produce all those documents without delay. I would save a file and had no idea where it went. I had to learn super fast including the DOS commands.
English
@codevsdev I literally just used the assembly language manual to figure out what opcodes were available and wrote code from that.
English
42 agents. 216 threads. One dashboard. Every agent gets its own prompt, tools, skills, and budget. Deploy specialized agents across your company. From the team at Airtable.
English
@codevsdev RTFM
Now I’m going to see how many people wrote the same thing. The fewer there are, the older I am.
English
@codevsdev that was when I learned and we just sat together and figured it out with more senior people and books
good times tbh
English
@codevsdev Docs always existed. I’ve read my first computer programming docs in mid 90s. They were printed on paper.
English
@codevsdev There was always books, I used them in the 90s. Used to go to Borders bookstore to buy them. Or the public library.
English
@codevsdev The basement of Stacy's bookstore in San Fransisco on Market Street had everything us pioneer "coders" needed.
We did not call our selves coders. We were developers who mostly taught ourselves how to code.
I hear it is closing down this year. 😣
English