Defining our terms
People have called lots of things event systems:
- graphical interfaces, physical simulations, collaborative workflow, programming with callbacks...
Events are Notifications to be Handled
- Events, as in physics, are abstract and instantaneous
- Notifications are messages with definite semantics
- Handlers implement synchronization and semantic constraints of a pattern of notifications
Events are not: RPC, Blackboards, Pipes, Documents, or FYI Messages