Lots of books! We had the internet but it wasn't very useful for looking up information about programming. We had usenet but it would take a while to get an answer, and often the answer was RTFM.
But what we did have were O'Reilly books! You could tell how senior an engineer was by how many O'Reilly books were on their shelf (and every cubicle had a built in bookshelf to keep said books).
I remember once when our company fired one of the senior engineers. The books were the property of the company, so they were left behind. Us junior engineers descended on his cubicle like vultures, divvying up and trading the books to move to our own shelves.
I still have those books somewhere -- when I got laid off they let me keep them as severance!
In addition to the ubiquitous ORA books (really, did anyone ever understand Sendmail config files before the bat book?) there were also a lot of print-outs. Huge swaths of code printed on 132-col fanfold paper. You might have a backup copy of the source code on tape somewhere, but nothing made you feel secure like having a copy of the previous working version printed out and stashed somewhere on your desk or in a drawer.
Lots of coding was done on those printouts also - you'd print out your function or your program and sit back and mark it up - especially if you were discussing or working with someone. Screens were small back then!
there are still pretty much all around 'old' IT companies, displayed in shelves and bookcases, as artifacts that explains what were old languages and systems.
I love the retro futuristic vibe of the cover of some of these.
And of their content. They invite the reader to leap into the future with bash, explained how Linux used to work, how past versions of .NET and Java were breakthroughs, how to code with XML,...
As a junior who has hardly read any of these, I find them pretty poetic, and I like the reflection they bring on IT jobs.
The languages and technologies will change, but good looking code is timeless
But what we did have were O'Reilly books! You could tell how senior an engineer was by how many O'Reilly books were on their shelf (and every cubicle had a built in bookshelf to keep said books).
I remember once when our company fired one of the senior engineers. The books were the property of the company, so they were left behind. Us junior engineers descended on his cubicle like vultures, divvying up and trading the books to move to our own shelves.
I still have those books somewhere -- when I got laid off they let me keep them as severance!