Also of similar vintage. True story about learning C on an Atari ST:
I bought a cheap compiler, tried to use one of the standard library functions, couldn't work out why it wasn't working.
Used the debugger to single-step through the 68k machine code it had generated. Still couldn't see why it wasn't working, because what it was doing didn't make sense.
Typed out a letter - dot-matrix printed on paper - and posted it, with an envelope and a stamp and all, to the compiler manufacturer.
Got a letter back - hand-typed on headed note paper and signed with a pen - saying: "Sorry, we haven't implemented that function yet."
Whole cycle took about two weeks.
I prefer having SO, Google and GitHub to work with.
I bought a cheap compiler, tried to use one of the standard library functions, couldn't work out why it wasn't working.
Used the debugger to single-step through the 68k machine code it had generated. Still couldn't see why it wasn't working, because what it was doing didn't make sense.
Typed out a letter - dot-matrix printed on paper - and posted it, with an envelope and a stamp and all, to the compiler manufacturer.
Got a letter back - hand-typed on headed note paper and signed with a pen - saying: "Sorry, we haven't implemented that function yet."
Whole cycle took about two weeks.
I prefer having SO, Google and GitHub to work with.