A blast from the past, and a thought for the future
As usual, I was looking for something online and disappeared down the internet rabbit hole. And just look what I found!!! My first C compiler manual was from 1988, Borland Turbo C and then Borland C++ circa 1991. If you look at those manuals, you will understand why we old guys have a deeper understanding of the inner workings of computers and programs. There was no Internet, No YouTube! You learned your trade by reading hefty manuals, craning over pages and pages of output, and deciphering cryptic error messages. There was no real support apart from hobbyist bulletin boards (BBS' es, the precursor to what is known today as Online Forums). Everyone had the K & R, The C Programming Language book on their bookshelf. Mine was version 2, and it's still around here, well-thumbed, somewhere. If you took up C++, you probably had Bjorn Soustraps's "The C++ Programming Language, " another bible by the man who wrote the language. Sometimes, it's amazing when you look back over the period of time you have lived and see the major changes that have occurred. AI will revolutionize learning, but there is no substitute for a deep understanding of the medium in which you work.