Before SO we had usenet groups, and later forums, so you'd ask those same questions and someone would help, pretty much like SO just on a smaller scale. Also back then we actually RTFM, and manuals usually included source examples so you'd figure out from it how to do the basic stuff and then worked your way from there by trial & error. Borland's Delphi had one of the best manuals I've ever used, to the day. And it was much slower and harder to learn it (but also you'd get broader knowledge than today).