Sink the events

[AlexAD]

Hi.

I'm reading a technical book and have this sentence, 'In GWT, if you are creating a widget, you need to sink the events you are interested in receiving.' I feel as 'sink' might be replaced with 'register' but I am not certain about it.
Could you please help?

Thanks in advance, Alex.

 

[charliedeut]

Hi,

I found this: How to sink events from a COM server. about "sink the events". It seems that it means "handle, respond to."

And this, specifically about GWT: All About GWT Starting GWT (google web toolkit)

Greetings,

charliedeut

 

[SoothingDave]

It's apparently the jargon used in this technical area. Don't change it.

 

[AlexAD]

I am not going to change that I just want to understand what that means by comparing with synonyms.

 

[SoothingDave]

"Respond to and handle events"

 

[AlexAD]

Thanks.
What I am trying to understand is where does it come from?
I have looked up the meanings of the 'sink' and the examples of using that word and haven't found anything that seem to be the origin. In other words how did you come to the meaning 'respond and handle events'? Which meaning of that word that you know led you to the answer?

I believe the meaning has nothing to do with the most used one, 'to go down below the surface', has it?

 

[5jj]

It seems to me that the word may originally have been a noun Sink (computing) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The verb 'sink' may mean something like 'to place in a sink', 'to lead to a sink'. That's a guess, not knowledge.

 

[SoothingDave]

I got the meaning from the link that charliedeut posted.

I am not exactly sure why the word is used in this context, but I know that electrical devices can be said to "source" or "sink" electrical current. "Source" meaning to supply current to devices that are connected to it, and "sink" meaning to accept current from the connected devices (and provide a way for that current to return to "ground.")

In this way, it's like a "sink" where you dump water and it goes down the pipes and to where it is supposed to go (a sewage or septic system). It's where you dump your current and it goes where it is supposed to go.

I am assuming that this analogy is carried over into the database server world and a thing that accepts these events and responds to them is likewise acting like a "sink." It's where you dump your events.

 

[5jj]

I got the meaning from the link that charliedeut posted.

I am not exactly sure why the word is used in this context, but I know that electrical devices can be said to "source" or "sink" electrical current. "Source" meaning to supply current to devices that are connected to it, and "sink" meaning to accept current from the connected devices (and provide a way for that current to return to "ground.")

In this way, it's like a "sink" where you dump water and it goes down the pipes and to where it is supposed to go (a sewage or septic system). It's where you dump your current and it goes where it is supposed to go.

I am assuming that this analogy is carried over into the database server world and a thing that accepts these events and responds to them is likewise acting like a "sink." It's where you dump your events.

That seems to fit the texts we have so far.