1-basics: variability vs mutability about gentle-intro HOT 6 CLOSED

I've fleshed it out a little. Yes, variables are variables. But the mutable default that is so common confuses people.

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Good point. I'm trying to speak to the usual sense of 'variable' in programming, but it's more the mathematical sense here. And 'variable' vs 'constant' is the important thing.

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@stevedonovan They're the same meaning! It's just that the defaults differ, like with references.

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Should this be closed with the changes you made? They seems good enough.

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"immutable variable" is an oxymoronic contradiction in normal english.

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@pannous In some sense "variable" is short for "variable binding" - the value inside is the variable, and what you're mutating is the "variable binding", not the value (which varies for a different reason than mutation - e.g. function arguments can differ between calls).

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