Reading is an action performed by computers, to acquire data from a source and place it into their volatile memory for processing. For example, a computer may read information off a floppy disk and store it in random access memory to be placed on the hard drive to be processed at a future date. Computers may read information from a variety of sources, such as magnetic storage, the Internet, or audio and video input ports.
The act of reading one unit of information (e.g. a byte) is sometimes called a read cycle. The electrical circuit that transforms the physical magnetic flux changes into abstract bits is called the read channel. A read error occurs when the physical part of the process fails for some reason, such as dust or dirt entering the drive.
Reading can be abstracted to one of the main functions of a Turing machine.
Famous quotes containing the word reading:
“I loved reading, and had a great desire of attaining knowledge; but whenever I asked questions of any kind whatsoever, I was always told, “such things were not proper for girls of my age to know.”... For “Miss must not enquire too far into things, it would turn her brain; she had better mind her needlework, and such things as were useful for women; reading and poring on books would never get me a husband.””
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)