title: What does 'stream' mean in C?
body: <p>I'm reading a section in 'C Primer Plus' which deals with files, streams and keyboard input. The author connects the concept of stream with files and defines stream as follows: </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Conceptually, the C program deals with a stream instead of directly with a file. <strong>A stream is an idealized flow of data to which the actual input or output is mapped</strong>. That means various kinds of input with differing properties are represented by streams with more uniform properties. The process of opening a file then becomes one of associating a stream with the file, and reading and writing take place via the stream</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>What does the author mean by the bold sentence? And what is the connection between files and stream? </p>