- Typing program listings from magazines required extreme precision, as even a single space error would prevent the program from running.
- Debugging in that era was a manual, painstaking process of comparing characters on screen to printed pages, with no online resources like Stack Overflow.
- Community existed through letters to editors, with delays of weeks, resembling modern forums but at a slower pace.
- Modern tools like autocomplete and AI save time but have replaced the necessity to read and understand code slowly and deeply.