Looks like your sidenote pretty much describes the situation in my school days. I remember our modula 2 compiler had many faults for instance which for me meant I only used it minimally. Also I remember a VAX PDP 11 mainframe with discrete CPU’s in it that was never able to fully boot anymore. But I loved how they were able to build a computer that way with all these low integrated circuits, transistors and magnetic core memory…
We also did Motorola assembly along with a very detailed description in lessons of how that CPU was designed. After a year when I finally grasped the thing it became my first love… (6802, later on 6809 and a bit 68000)
Sorry for the sidenote extension in the thread… 