ESL receives input from the keyboard just as if the characters were being received from a local or remote application. Thus, the following statements work with the keyboard in exactly the same way as they do with an application:
| Statement | Description | 
| response to line | Response statement for a line of input. | 
| response to char | Response statement for any character(s). | 
| make string disposition | Action statement to hold, drop, or immediately handle character input. | 
| input | Built-in function containing the received characters. | 
Matching Special Characters from the Keyboard
In a match clause in a response to char or response to line response statement, ESL can match special characters and key combinations.