Slot

A slot is a narrow opening in a machine, for example a hole that you drop coins into to make the machine work. It is also a place or sequence in a process, such as a slot in a clock or an assignment or job opening.

A description of a slot is a text document that contains information about a specific type of slot machine, such as its name, location and room layout. The description is meant to help the operator make an appropriate decision when operating the machine.

The term “slot” comes from the Middle English word slot, meaning hollow in the breastbone. It has an etymological connection with deer track, as a bloodhound is said to follow a wounded deer.

Taxonomy of slots follows two paths: one is based on relation-element view and another is on slot-argument views. The relation-element approach promotes reuse of knowledge, while the slot-argument view parallels nonslot taxonomy and eliminates duplicate examples.

Slot functions are used in component programming to communicate with other objects through signal information. They have a variable number of arguments, as opposed to static functions, but they can be used with the $passSignalInformation parameter. Using this parameter ensures that the signal information is passed to all other functions that need it.