What Are Streams?
Most computer programs accept some form of input and generate some type of output. That is, after all, basically what a computer is useful for. Every computer language must have a way of dealing with input and output; otherwise, it would be impossible to write a useful program. The input could come from a file on disk, data sent over the network, or even another program. This is true of the output as well.
Most information used within a computer program flows from the input source through the computer program and then possibly on to an output destination. This idea of data flow leads to the term stream. A stream is nothing more than a flow of data through some channel. Input streams direct data from the outside world—a ...
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