A Televideo ASCII character mode terminal, manufactured around 1982.

A character-oriented terminal is a type of computer terminal that communicates with its host one character at a time, as opposed to a block-oriented terminal that communicates in blocks of data. It is the most common type of data terminal, because it's easy to implement and program. Connection to the mainframe computer or terminal server is achieved via RS-232 serial links, Ethernet or other proprietary protocols.

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Data terminals

See also

• Dumb terminal
• Text user interface
• DEC VT100
• visual editor
• command line interface
• roguelike games

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