Is there a word that both describes keys on a keyboard as well as mouse buttons? They are quite similar, as in you press down on them, yet it is still called press a key and click a mouse button.
3 words I thought of are
switch
button
key
but these all are a bit generic and don't show that b...
@kim366 - There's a fine line to be walked when it comes to variable naming. "What should I name my variable for {this purpose}?" is off-topic, but "Is there a hypernym for {a} and {b}?" sounds on-topic to me. Your edited version is definitely on-topic as far as I'm concerned (but others may disagree...)
You could use peripheral input. Still generic but does specify that it is a peripheral. The most common computer peripherals are keyboards and mice but others include printers, scanners, pens, touchpads, joysticks, cameras, microphones, etc.
@kim366 - Nope, no better idea, sorry. I posted it as a comment as I thought it unlikely to be any good, but it was all I had. If you'd liked it I would have converted it into an answer.
@kim366: Yes. And a mouse-button click is typically multiple events. In Emacs, for example (for the first mouse button): event down-mouse-1 followed by event mouse-1.
Discussion on question by kim366: Is …
Discussion on question by kim366: Is …