Data acquisition through the standard input stream is a fundamental operation in many command-line utilities and scripting languages. This process allows programs to receive data directly from the user’s keyboard or from the output of another program, enabling flexible and dynamic interactions. For instance, a text processing tool might accept a block of text entered by the user as input for subsequent manipulation.
The capability to ingest data through this channel offers significant advantages. It promotes modularity by allowing programs to be chained together in pipelines, where the output of one program becomes the input for another. This approach enhances reusability and simplifies complex tasks by breaking them down into smaller, manageable components. Historically, this method has been crucial in the development of powerful data processing workflows in Unix-like operating systems and has facilitated automation and scripting across various domains.
