Requesting Input
Mathematica usually works by taking whatever input you give, and then processing it. Sometimes, however, you may want to have a program you write explicitly request more input. You can do this using
Input and
InputString .
Input[]
read an expression as input
Input["
prompt"]
issue a prompt, then read an expression
InputString["
prompt"]
issue a prompt, then read a string
Interactive input.
Exactly how
Input and
InputString work depends on the computer system and
Mathematica interface you are using. With a text-based interface, they typically just wait for standard input, terminated with a newline. With a notebook interface, however, they typically get the front end to put up a "dialog box", in which the user can enter input.
In general,
Input is intended for reading complete
Mathematica expressions.
InputString , on the other hand, is for reading arbitrary strings.