Regan Heath wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:14:16 -0500, Ben Hinkle <ben.hinkle@gmail.com>  wrote:
> 
>>>>> C++ used cout, perhaps because they couldn't use stdout, perhaps  because
>>>>> it's not actually the "standard output" thing.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I was wondering the same thing when I was writing my previous post. I'm
>>>> curious
>>>> what the history was
>>>> behind that name. I remember when I first opened up a C++ book and saw
>>>> "cout" I
>>>> thought it stood for
>>>> "C output" and wondered why a book about C++ would talk about C's  output
>>>> stream.
>>>> :-P
>>>
>>>
>>> I thought that exact same thing. Now I wonder... the 'c' can't possibly
>>> stand for 'character' can it?
>>
>>
>> "console" is what I hear the most
> 
> 
> Duh! of course.
> 
> Regan

Reading Stroustrup's the Design and Evolution of C++ does give
the following impression:

cout like the C stdout,
cin  like the C stdin,
cerr like the C stderr.

Where the three are by default attached to the screen, the
keyboard and the screen. Those attachments can be changed
outside the program at runtime, which gives unbelievable
flexibility.