I grew up in what one could now call the end of an era for NES clones and the first golden age of the IBM-compatible PC. Then, in the gap between the two, was a decommissioned Timex Computer 2048, a ZX Spectrum clone, complete with a introductory book – with a primer on Sinclair BASIC, display modes and so on.
Now, we're talking about a former Warsaw Pact nation. That meant even though somebody experienced in clerical work would be well-versed in the local keyboard layout, you couldn't rely on that with those newfangled computer thingies. Spectrum's graphics mode offered salvation with 21 sprites' worth of RAM dedicated to custom glyphs, available through SymblShift + a letter. A Sinclair BASIC listing was provided that would load an "ą" under "a", "ć" under "c", so on for "ę", "ł", "ń", "ó" and "ś". The remaining two were less lucky. They had one base letter to share, and one outside the assignable range to boot. Best one could do was to put "ź" and "ż" to "t" and "u", respectively.
To this day, the "stu" wrapping up the short list, rather than the almost-stereotypical "szz" serves me as a quick-and-sure mnemonic, a perfect-memory checklist for all nine accented letters accompanying the usual 26.
For now? Trying to remind myself that coding can still be fun.