A
computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical
hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a
computer or a
computing system. Early terminals were inexpensive devices but very slow compared to
punched cards or
paper tape for input, but as the technology improved and
video displays were introduced, terminals pushed these older forms of interaction from the industry. A related development was
timesharing systems, which evolved in parallel and made up for any inefficiencies of the user's typing ability with the ability to support multiple users on the same machine, each at their own terminal.