Well, I never considered myself to be a web developer, but I guess I am since I have been programming since the mid 1970's, and run a server with 14 or so websites, all of which I built (developed) and operate on a daily basis.
My programming skills are limited, however. When in college the computer I worked on was a keypunch machine with a key card. It was approximately 8 feet long, 4 feet deep, and 4-1/2 feet tall, and all it did was punch holes in cards with data on them, like your name, address, etc. Reader machines would then read and file the data.
Then in 1980 I bought my first Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer, and learned basic. Back then we had to build our spreadsheets from scratch, there were no programs like Lotus 123, Excel. There was no Internet. I taught my kids and one of them in particular really excelled. He is now a computer engineer programming machines that make the tools that make parts. His work includes things used on the Hubbel Telescope in space, to tiny elements in an artificlal heart. He loves math, trig, calculus, etc. waaaay beyond my abilities.
I mostly program with HTML and PHP, but mostly use Adobe tools like Dreamweaver, InDesign, QuarkXPress, etc.
Back in the day it was no where near as easy as it is today.