Being a developer for over 35 years I can tell you that generally it wasn't that much harder just different. I really don't think they were so much smarter, but you definitely had to be more resourceful. Most of the languages back then didn't have the rich libraries and frameworks available today and we had to work within much less available memory and disk resources. One of the pluses of that era was that your code HAD to be optimized or it just wouldn't work because of the memory limitations. I personally wrote apps in C, dBase, Clipper, and Microsoft Basic back in those days.
One advantage we have today that we didn't have back then is the instant ability to lookup a error message or search for a solution on sites like Stack Exchange. If you had a problem you were on your own for the most part. Needless to say, your library of books was quite large if you were a developer. Overall though we are so much better off today in my opinion. So many more choices and options and of course great communities like this one. :-)
You would think, with access to so many millions of resources, people wouldn't be so dependent on out-of-the-box solutions like Bootstrap.
To me, frameworks have taken on a whole new meaning.
Leads used to come in and introduce something custom and minimal to the rest of the team. Now, it seems that things are adopted that take just as much - if not more - time to learn than just doing it themselves.
I call them "framewonks", such as AngularJS - which people spent a good six or more years getting pro at, only to become antiquated and unsupported - when they could have created it themselves by learning the core language and what makes it tick. It would have also given the companies they work for the advantage of providing an in-house solution that can be branded and turned into a proprietary SaaS model.
Honestly, I think I'm only a few years away from sitting on a park bench and feeding pigeons while cursing.
Mike Chilson
Full Stack Developer
Being a developer for over 35 years I can tell you that generally it wasn't that much harder just different. I really don't think they were so much smarter, but you definitely had to be more resourceful. Most of the languages back then didn't have the rich libraries and frameworks available today and we had to work within much less available memory and disk resources. One of the pluses of that era was that your code HAD to be optimized or it just wouldn't work because of the memory limitations. I personally wrote apps in C, dBase, Clipper, and Microsoft Basic back in those days.
One advantage we have today that we didn't have back then is the instant ability to lookup a error message or search for a solution on sites like Stack Exchange. If you had a problem you were on your own for the most part. Needless to say, your library of books was quite large if you were a developer. Overall though we are so much better off today in my opinion. So many more choices and options and of course great communities like this one. :-)