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Input Devices


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#1
MynameisSteve

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I'm in a computer class required by my college to take other computer classes. The class is designed for people who have never used a computer before. I am no genius, but I have definitely used a computer before. I recently lost a point on a test that I think I deserve. The question asked us to list three input devices, and three output devices. For input devices (where I lost the point) I listed cd-drive, keyboard, and mouse. He says the "cd-drive" is a storage device, and I argue that the cd itself is the storage device and that if the cd-drive wasn't an input device the information would never get on the computer. The book we are using, does not list the cd-drive in either input devices, or storage devices so I somehow want approval that I am correct. Anyone out there want to comment on this and say what you think? I intend to show him this, probably rather I am right or wrong. Thanks!
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#2
GMCS

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Sorry but I think your instructor is right. Computer input devices generally mean human initiated input, such as with a keyboard, mouse, microphone, track pad, joystick etc. For each of these the user initiates and determines the data stream of input into the computer for processing.
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#3
Digerati

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Agreed. The CD drive is not an input device, any more than the CPU or RAM is by using your same argument. The CD drive is a special storage device in that it have removable media.

You could have gotten away with a monitor as an input device, if it were a touch screen.
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#4
MynameisSteve

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Well, I first would like to point out that a cd-drive will input no information into the computer unless a human puts the cd into the drive and proceeds to tell it what to do with the information using the other input devices. But, I typed the question about the cd-drive into Google to see what came up and I got an answer from Wiki answers (if I remember the website correctly). It said that, a cd-drive is both an input device, in the way that I referred to it, because it is quite clearly inputting information from a storage device, and it is an output device, in the way that you can burn cds/dvds and send music from your computer to a separate storage device. There for, it is still clear that the cd-drive is input, but it is also output. (no reference to the cd-drive holding information) But, since you can't call it input or output, the cd-drive gets classified as a "Storage Access Device." As the cd-drive is used for accessing the actual storage.
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#5
rshaffer61

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Keyboard
Mouse
Joystick

Maybe a good way to think about it is if it only sends a signal TO the system then it would be a INPUT device.
I might be wrong about this but to me that would be the easiest way to determine the answer
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#6
Digerati

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Well, I first would like to point out that a cd-drive will input no information into the computer unless a human puts the cd into the drive and proceeds to tell it what to do with the information using the other input devices.

That is not the definition of an input device so you just need to accept the industry's 40+ year-old definition and stop trying to justify your own. You are wrong. Time to accept it. If we went by that flawed logic, we would have to include hard drives, SSDs, and memory sticks - for they are empty when new too, until a human saves (writes - not "inputs"!) data to it. So it is CLEAR, they are not input devices, but storage devices (a type of memory). They are NOT used for input and output, but again, for reading and writing data to and from storage. A human inserting a disk is NOT inputing data! He is simply, in effect, "mounting" another storage device to the computer and OS.

There for, it is still clear that the cd-drive is input, but it is also output.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!! Storage devices are NOT used for input and output - they are used to "read" and "write" data to storage. That is not the same thing! Technical definitions are NOT defined by the literal definition of the words as found common dictionaries.

Maybe a good way to think about it is if it only sends a signal TO the system then it would be a INPUT device.

No - close, but that's not quite right either as data is being sent to and fro all the time from all sorts of devices, and not necessarily from an "input" device. A network interface card, for example, is sending data to the computer, but it is not an Input device. Neither is the graphics card. Input devices are generally defined as a peripheral hardware devices that interface the human with the computer. A CD is not that. The mouse that clicks on the CD's data is.
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#7
MynameisSteve

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That is not the definition of an input device so you just need to accept the industry's 40+ year-old definition and stop trying to justify your own. You are wrong.


If you had read anything above the most recent post, you would see that what I said was in response to someone else saying input devices are human initiated.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!! Storage devices are NOT used for input and output - they are used to "read" and "write" data to storage.


I did NOT say that storage devices are used for input and output, I said that a CD DRIVE is used for both input and output.


Input devices are generally defined as a peripheral hardware devices that interface the human with the computer. A CD is not that. The mouse that clicks on the CD's data is.


I clearly stated I do not think a CD is an input device, but the drive itself is.

First of all, I would like to define an INPUT device very clearly by what I think. An input device sends information to the general computer to be accessed. Now, if you are going to sit over there and tell me a CD Drive does is not an input device I would like you to tell me how the information is inputted to the computer when a cd is placed in the drive. I mean, since the CD Drive doesn't do it, it must be the graphics card that sends (INPUTS) the information to the computer. Or maybe it's the RAM, or the ROM, who knows, maybe the monitor INPUTS the information from the CD itself. Oh wait, no, none of those things access the cd, so it MUST BE the cd-drive that is inputting.
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#8
dsenette

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First of all, I would like to define an INPUT device very clearly by what I think.

this is where your logic falls down....doesn't really matter how you think

transferring data and inputing data are two COMPLETELY different things

INPUT means you are PUTTING something in from scratch (i.e. it's coming out of thin air)....TRANSFERRING means you're taking something from one place to another.

a CD drive, hard drive, flash drive, or any other STORAGE device TAKES information that EXISTS on one type of media and TRANSFERS it to another type of media


INPUT is completely different. with INPUT the data (information) DOES NOT exist on any other form of media. when you type on a keyboard you are ENTERING data into the computer system (like the forum i'm typing in now) from scratch not TRANSFERRING information from one type of media to another
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#9
Digerati

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(Edit add - dsenette came and said the same thing while I typing - but rather than delete it, I will keep it to reiterate).

Steve - You have changed your whole argument into something else. You opened this thread to complain that your teacher marked one of your answers wrong.

He didn't.

If you had read anything above the most recent post, you would see that what I said was in response to someone else saying input devices are human initiated.

I did read it. And he is right! Your response was not.

First of all, I would like to define an INPUT device very clearly by what I think.

You don't get to do that!!! You are just a student learning the technology, and it's terminologies. You can define it anyway you want, but that still does not make it right, nor will it help you pass a certification test.

An input device sends information to the general computer to be accessed

Wrong! Just because something sends data, that does not make it an input device. An input device is an interface. It typically converts some mechanical action into data that can be interpreted by the computer as an instruction.

I said that a CD DRIVE is used for both input and output.

NO IT ISN'T!!!!!! It is used to read and write data from and to storage media. That is NOT the same thing as input and output.

Now, if you are going to sit over there and tell me a CD Drive does is not an input device I would like you to tell me how the information is inputted to the computer when a cd is placed in the drive.

How many times? I have already said it several times. The CD does not input anything. The computer, via the controller (an I/O device, BTW) reads the data previously stored on the disk. Input implies some action by the disk. There is none. It just sits and spins. The "read head" (notice is it not called "input" head) then positions the LEDs over the tracks and "reads" the data and stuffs it in a buffer from where it is fetched by the computer - it is NOT inputted by the disk.

If you mean how does a CD automatically start when inserted into a drive, that has NOTHING to do with what is on the disk. That is Windows sensing the drive's tray was closed, and the OS preprogrammed to go look to see if there is an autorun file for it to "read".

Last time here - reading and writing is NOT inputting or outputting.
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#10
MynameisSteve

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in⋅put  [in-poot] Show IPA noun, adjective, verb, -put⋅ted or -put, -put⋅ting.
–noun
1. something that is put in.
2. the act or process of putting in.
3. the power or energy supplied to a machine.
4. the current or voltage applied to an electric or electronic circuit or device. Compare output (def. 4).
5. Computers.
a. data to be entered into a computer for processing.
b. the process of introducing data into the internal storage of a computer.



(Pay close attention to five.a and five.b as this is information on my side of the case.)
It clearly states that "input" is in reference to data, and therefor refers to more than just "inputting from scratch or thin air." That one is from dictionary.com

This one is from merriam-webster.com

Main Entry: 1in·put
Pronunciation: \ˈin-ˌpu̇t\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1888
1 : something that is put in: as a : an amount put in <increased input of fertilizer increases crop yield> b : power or energy put into a machine or system for storage, conversion in kind, or conversion of characteristics usually with the intent of sizable recovery in the form of output c : a component of production (as land, labor, or raw materials) d : information fed into a data processing system or computer e : advice, opinion, comment f : a stimulus that acts on and is integrated into a bodily system <sensory input>



(Pay close attention to one:d where it also references information, and not nothing coming from thin air. THAT IS NOT TO SAY THAT WHEN IT COMES FROM THIN AIR IT ISN'T INPUT BECAUSE IT STILL IS).


Regardless, all I am saying is that the cd drive has qualities of an input device, and an output device. But, it MOST DEFINITELY IS NOT a storage device as the cd-drive does not hold any of your data. The CD does. So, in other words, I completely agree with the thing that I stated earlier which I read on a different website (here). A CD-Drive is a Storage ACCESS Device, used for accessing something that actually is a storage device. The key word there is access. Although a cd-drive both puts in, and puts out, I would like to see you use a cd without the cd-drive. It quite simply is not possible, therefor the CD DRIVE is used for ACCESSIBILITY. It's main purpose is to ACCESS the CD, and then TRANSFER THE DATA (which as the definitions above state is also input, when data goes into a system Also, (what I consider to be it's secondary purpose for most users) the CD DRIVE can be used to PUT OUT (output) information onto a cd, which is sending information out of the computer to a storage device. Therefor, it is unarguably a "Storage Access Device." (which holds input and output qualities)
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#11
MynameisSteve

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How many times? I have already said it several times. The CD does not input anything. The computer, via the controller (an I/O device, BTW) reads the data previously stored on the disk. Input implies some action by the disk. There is none. It just sits and spins. The "read head" (notice is it not called "input" head) then positions the LEDs over the tracks and "reads" the data and stuffs it in a buffer from where it is fetched by the computer - it is NOT inputted by the disk.


Listen, DIG, I quite clearly stated that the CD does not input anything, but stores information. The CD-DRIVE reads, and then inputs information. The CD, and CD DRIVE are two different things as I'm sure you know. Listen, open up your cd-drive. Put a cd into it. And then unplug the CD-Drive. Is the "controller" going to read the information then? NO. And since the cd-drive is unplugged, not only will it not have power (but even if it did just have power hooked up, this would still hold true) then the cd-drive (the device that reads the disc and sends the information) would no longer be able to input the information on the disc. okay?

Edited by MynameisSteve, 09 October 2009 - 09:37 AM.

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#12
dsenette

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you're horribly confused about terminology here..

a storage device is a device that allows you to STORE and RETRIEVE data from some form of STORAGE media...a CD is media...and the stuff on the CD is data....it's no strange coincidence that when you're talking about the data on a CD you reference the data STORED on the CD...it IS a storage device...the act of WRITING or READING information from a storage device is called transferring you either transfer to or you transfer from..you DO NOT input data into a CD

the definitions you cited are BOTH nouns... where as in the phrase "input device" input is a modifier of the noun device....so your definitions are moot here... input as a VERB means to ENTER information into a system... a CD drive DOES NOT enter information...it TRANSFERS information from one place to another...these are completely different concepts
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#13
Digerati

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We are obviously talking to a wall here. As I noted before, technical terms are not defined by the common definition of the words as found in merriam-webster.

The CD does not send anything - the computer retrieves.

Your teacher is right.
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#14
MynameisSteve

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I am obviously talking to a wall as well, because I said possibly four different times that the CD does not send anything. You keep repeating the things that I said, as if I just said the opposite. And, if they can not be defined by those places, direct me towards a reference that will define them, and when I go read them and give you more information proving the things that I say maybe you will understand now.

I think this has been strewn about from my original intention. I am arguing about what a CD DRIVE is. Not a cd. And a CD Drive is a Storage Access Device. So someone should comment on that, instead of talking about cds, and my "lack of proper terminology" because that's not what is on discussion. Neither is everyones inability to realize what I'm saying. Which is what I've ended up arguing about...

I think Rshaffer had the most relevant response earlier. Here's a reminder....

Maybe a good way to think about it is if it only sends a signal TO the system then it would be a INPUT device.

But, the cd-drive sends a signal to the system. Like I said... respond to what I said, about six sentences ago.
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#15
MynameisSteve

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But, just for the record since it was brought up, here's input as a verb. It still uses the word data.



in⋅put  [in-poot] Show IPA noun, adjective, verb, -put⋅ted or -put, -put⋅ting.

–verb (used with object)
10. Computers. to enter (data) into a computer for processing.
11. to contribute (ideas, information, or suggestions) to a project, discussion, etc
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