Teletype: the ancestor of Terminal
Computers. Like anything else they did not just jump into existence. They have a history to them. But the history of computers is somewhat different to other things: It's easy to copy information from one computer to another. Much of a computer systems value is actually nothing but information. Building a new system people tried to use existing things: "Compatibility". Things are around forever because of this. The Terminal is a prime example for this principle.
A teletype machine has been used for more than hundred years for remote communications. It is basically a keyboard and a printer. They were also connected to computers as one of the first I/O devices. Before that there were banks of switches, and more machine like interfaces like punch cards.
This Image shows Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson in 1972.
more info on this image at: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/picture.html
Looking at the original teletype operation explains allot:
You enter a command (a line) hit enter and the computer will spit out some lines on the printer. Only if you hit enter you feed your characters to the computer, before he was unaware of it. Today we are used to systems that will constantly look at what we type and will constantly interact more or less meaningful in response to that. The Terminal is different: It will only look at what you wrote when you send your input with the enter key.
This has not really changed. Too much in people and computers is depending on it.
And there are countless traces of this history: Up to this day terminal devices are been called tty for teletype. Even though the terminal is just another program.
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