What obstacles did the first programmers face?

The first programmers had to face grueling hours of counting and calculating to get operations done. When the first computer came out, not the ones from Steve Jobs and Bill Gates time, it consisted of a whole bunch of tubes. The programmers had to replace a lot of things to get one "application" to work (for example a calculator to add one plus one), and they had to remember many processes that today's computers keep in memory, making life difficult for a programmer back then. There are a lot of videos on the internet that will tell you more in depth detail. Check the related link.