So, did programmers in the 1980’s think this whole “computer thingy” was just a fad that wouldn’t last twenty years? Lol!
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No, but in the 80s memory was at a premium in most computers. The best programmers could write software that accomplished the processes with most minimal lines of code. In 1985 it probably never occurred to you that your program would be running in 1999.
Still a lot of COBOL programs running today, and they don’t even have the source code for it.
If you wanted to change those programs, you literally had to manipulate the bytes in the compiled code file.
My spreadsheet is Borland’s Quattro Pro. Written in 1994, still runs.