Which device was used for practically all writing up to the 1980s?

I'd have guessed pens. I guess typing and writing are not the same to me.

In a song by Del Amitri there is line “Secretaries cover typewriters and put on their coats” . I recently said to my wife that soon someone would have to explain what a secretary was and what a typewriter was . The future has come to pass!

I remember having to type 40 words a minute with no mistakes to pass typing class. the pianists did 3 times that

I understand that when the typewriter was being invented, the great problem that kept being encountered was clashing keys, so that was how the keyboard ended up in the strange order it is - the least number of clashing keys!

Leapfoot, typing and writing is not the same to, ANYBODY!