terminális

Terminális, in the field of computing, denotes a device or software interface that allows a user to interact with a computer by entering commands and viewing text output. Traditional terminals were hardware devices—a keyboard and a display connected to a central computer, often a mainframe or minicomputer, and sometimes a teletype. These “dumb” terminals provided limited processing power and relied on the host for computation. Smart terminals added some processing but still forwarded input and rendered output.

The introduction of video display terminals in the 1970s, such as the VT100, standardized control codes and screen handling using escape sequences, enabling more complex interfaces. With the rise of UNIX-like systems, terminal emulators emerged, running on personal computers and later on mobile devices, reproducing the behavior of hardware terminals within software. Common terminal emulators include xterm, GNOME Terminal, iTerm2, and Windows Terminal. They connect locally or over networks to remote machines and run shells such as sh, bash, zsh, or PowerShell.

Remote access protocols, notably SSH and Telnet, let users operate distant systems through a terminal session. Modern use cases include system administration, development workflows, and automation in servers, cloud environments, containers, and virtual machines.

In Hungarian, terminális is used for computing terminals, though the word can also denote physical transport terminals. See also: terminal emulator, command-line interface, shell.