1.3 Variables vs syntax

An identifier may name a type of syntax or it may name a location where a value can be stored. If an identifier names syntax, it is called a syntactic keyword . If an identifier refers to a value’s location, it is called a variable , and the value associated with the location the variable refers to is called the variable’s value .

Some expressions are used to create new locations and bind variables to them: those expressions are called binding constructs . WhizzML’s binding constructs are lambda expressions (section 2.4 ), let expressions (section 2.7 ), map expressions (subsection 2.9.2 ), for expressions (subsection 2.9.3 ), loop/recur expressions (subsection 2.9.1 ) and definitions using the define keyword.