Nowadays, programming cannot be imagined without the existence of the Internet. It is hard to believe that, before the Internet had entered the majority of people’s homes, programmers used to work independently by simply relying on the knowledge they adopted during their studies and the experience they had during their working careers. What resources are used to help programmers solve the issues? Were these resources enough to catch up with all the programming novelties? Here is a list of resources used by programmers before the massive use of the Internet. 

Paper Programming Magazines

These magazines used to come out weekly or monthly, and they would cover specific topics on programming and various codes’ listings. This meant that you had to read it regularly and to read even the stuff which you weren’t especially interested in for a simple – you might need it later.

From time to time, there would appear an article that centres on the topic you like or you need, so these magazines kept programmers open-minded and informed. 

Books and Help Documentation

This meant finding a solution to the problem in programming used to be much slower. Sometimes it meant you had to know all the information by heart in order to fluently program software which you want. Therefore, programmers have to rely mostly on their critical thinking, reasoning skills, and persistence to take various actions till they manage to do the task. 

TV Programs on Coding and Softwares

TV Programs were useful in a way that presented all that you needed to know visually. They added up to the textual explanations and information found in the magazines and books and gave programmers insight into the actual work. This also required persistence and regular following. 

In-person group meetings

The exchange of experience has always been crucial for the programming branch, so the actual meetings would gather different programmers to discuss the work they did and how they could help one another. Since today’s stereotype of programmers defines them as a bit anti-social, these meetings seem to have a more humane note on programmers’ social skills and communication. Although many programmers would agree that online meetings are practically the same as real meet-ups, there is a slight difference in their attitudes towards one another when they actually interact in reality.

The university and company networks 

Before the World Wide Web came into being, the universities and companies developed small networks in which all the computers within a building can be connected to one another. It wasn’t exposed to the public like the World Wide Web, yet these platforms alleviated the communication between the students and the workers and they would exchange ideas via these old-time networks designed for specific purposes. 

FTP, Telnet and Usenet

These platforms used to do the remote search for programmers and were pretty practical at the time. FTP was there to access large repositories of code libraries, Telnet could help you log in to various remote code machines, while Usenet set up a cornerstone for discussion forums. Usenet shares a lot of similarities with today’s Quora, and the original idea for the FAQ segment (frequently asked questions) is derived from Usenet.