categories

This post is just some stack or heap of thoughts. Unsorted, No real category to be found.

I have been reading about the use of variables in programming languages, and I realized how many concepts are involved into a normal operation like

X = 4


We need to consider that we have storage somewhere - to store 4 items, maybe 4 voltages to keep it simple. In computers we use something like a register. Apart from the physical quantities, we assign a name to this storage place. We need this name to refer later to this place and to reason about change. Then there is the question on scope (or context) of the name. When I refer to X now, we will now what I am talking about. But when I am referring to X later or at another location I will need to give you more detailed hints. So, above expression needs at least 3 considerations: a location in the physical world, a binding to a name (maybe similar to a pronoun like "me" or "you"), and a value.

This makes abstractions maybe confusing for beginners.... you need to know what concept is referred to.