A computer that only has a graphical user interface (GUI) would receive input primarily through hardware devices and GUI input controls designed for user interaction. The possible input methods include:
- Pointing devices such as a mouse, touchpad, trackball, joystick, or touchscreen, which allow the user to move a cursor and interact with graphical elements by clicking, dragging, or tapping
- Keyboard input , which can be used for typing text, using keyboard shortcuts, or navigating GUI elements via keys
- GUI input controls embedded in the interface, such as buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdown lists, list boxes, text boxes, toggles, sliders, and dialog boxes, which users interact with by clicking or tapping to provide input or make selections
- Virtual keyboards or on-screen keyboards can also be used, especially on touch-based devices, to input text without a physical keyboard
- In some GUIs, voice commands may be accepted as input, although this depends on additional software support and is not a universal feature
Therefore, a GUI-only computer would receive input through a combination of physical input devices (mouse, keyboard, touchscreen) and interaction with graphical input elements presented on the screen. The GUI interprets these inputs (mouse clicks, key presses, touches) to perform actions without requiring command-line text input
