There was a universe before digital computers were popular or a thing at all.

Computing predates computers.

Before digital computers existed, there were still computers. They were people. A baker is a person who bakes. A computer was a person who computes (computing mathematical results).

Sure, that's why I had computers italicized to indicate the specific modern definition, not everything that computes.

I know two people who are experts in linear programming who have never written a single line of code.

In the UK at A-level (age 16-18) you may still be taught linear and dynamic programming before ever touching a line of code! (Indeed, that was the same for me!)

Did your school used the specific terms "linear programming" and "dynamic programming" to refer to those topics? My original comment didn't phrase this clearly, but I was thinking less about techniques themselves, and more about encountering them under those specific labels.

As an analogy, it's not unusual to learn a good chunk of calculus before learning that "calculus" is a thing they're part of - for example, by having an over-eager physics teacher who teaches you some of it so we can understand physics material deeper, but without ever mentioning the branch of math we're now using.

I meant that in particular you should _not_ think of the “programming” part of “dynamic programming” in the sense of computer programming