On Apr 15, 2010, at 5:12 PM, Paul Miller wrote:
Hello Everyone,
Learning about R and its wonderful array of functions. If it's not
obvious, I usually try to find out what a function stands for. I
think this helps me remember better.
One function that has me stumped is "sink." Can anyone tell me if
this stands for something?
In the kitchen, a sink is the place you put the dishes in. In
electronics, a sink is where the electrons go after they have made
their way through the circuitry ... also known as a "ground", whereas
"sources" are the current inputs. There were a lot of EE types among
the original cadre of computer scientitsts. In the NIXen class of
OSes, there is a "pipe" operation, and I believe that the destination
file or device is probably called a "sink" by some. This leads me to
think that a hybrid argot of plumbing and circuitry analogies is the
likely origin of the term.
Thanks,
Paul
David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT
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