I'm really curious about your learning experiences! How did you teach yourself to code and solve programming problems before the arrival of AI models like LLMs or resources like Stack Overflow? Was it mainly through books, formal education, mentors, or maybe just trial and error? I'd love to hear how you navigated your programming journey back then and any resources you found helpful. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
5 Answers
Honestly, I learned programming like everyone else in the pre-internet days: books and local classes. My high school even had basic programming classes, which kicked me off on my coding journey.
It was all about trial and error! You'd look at the compiler errors, debug your code, and just try to make things work. I picked up BASIC in the early '90s and kept experimenting with different programming languages as I went along.
Books were my go-to! You'd find a good book on programming and just dive in. Clubs and forums were amazing for sharing knowledge, but I really relied on good old-fashioned books.
Did you have any favorite magazines or book series that you found super helpful back then?
Totally agree! Some of those older programming books are classics.
Back in the day, we just read the documentation and trialed our code until it worked. Documentation was like the manual for what we were using; you'd figure things out by mixing theory with practice.
I get that! Documentation often feels like the ingredients to a recipe, but figuring out how to mix them into a meal—that’s the real art of coding!
Exactly! It's all about trying out new things and learning from mistakes.
I learned by hanging out with other programmers and actually reading the manuals that came with software. The advancements in coding are incredible now, but I do miss the simplicity of those early days where you just had to focus on the fundamentals.
Such a great mindset! I bet learning from peers was invaluable back in the day.
Absolutely! It was a much slower-paced learning environment, but you really absorbed the knowledge.
Sounds like a tough but rewarding approach! There’s nothing quite like that feeling when your code finally works after all the debugging.