The Amiga has an input device to monitor all input activity. The input activity nominally includes keyboard and mouse events, but which can be extended to include other types of input signals. When the user moves the mouse, presses a mouse button or types on the keyboard, the input device detects the activity from the specific device, and constructs an inputevent. An inputevent is a message describing a single event, such as the transition of a key on the keyboard from up to down. The input device then passes the input events down a prioritized chain of input handlers, which are routines in memory that process the input events. The sequence of input events passing through this chain of input handlers is known as the input stream. Any handler linked into this chain can monitor and modify the event stream. Each input handler may block (consume) events, allow events to pass through to the next handler in the chain or add new events to the sequence. Other devices and programs can add input events to the input stream by sending messages to the input device. For instance, AmigaDOS is able to generate an input event whenever a disk is inserted or removed. See the "input device" chapter of the amiga rom kernel reference manual: Devices for more information on the Input device. intuition as an input handler receiving input events from intuition idcmp events and the input focus