Computer terminal

A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system.

Contemporary

Since the advent and subsequent popularization of the personal computer, few genuine hardware terminals are used to interface with computers today. Using the monitor and keyboard, modern operating systems like Linux and the BSD derivatives feature virtual terminals, which are mostly independent from the hardware used.

Related Topics:
Personal computer - Monitor - Keyboard - Linux - BSD - Virtual terminal

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When using a graphical user interface (or GUI) like the X Window System, one's display is typically occupied by a collection of windows associated with various applications, rather than a single stream of text associated with a single process. In this case, one may use a terminal emulator application within the windowing environment. This arrangement permits terminal-like interaction with the computer (for running a command line interpreter, for example) without the need for a physical terminal device.

Related Topics:
Graphical user interface - X Window System - Terminal emulator - Command line interpreter

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~