operating system The facility where the user can type more

characters before the system has fully responded to those

already typed. Type-ahead is common on most current systems.

It allows the user to type without worrying that the computer

may miss input because it is temporarily busy,

e.g. reformating a page, checking spelling, or simply

suffering from network latency. There is usually some limit

to the amount of input the system can buffer, beyond which it

_will_ lose input.