> it uses the terms "variable" and "value" with different meanings than most programmers would use

Have to disagree on this, these are very common words with normal meanings, from the Assignment page on Wikipedia:

> Assignments typically allow a *variable* to hold different *values* at different times during its life-span and scope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment_(computer_science)

Unless there's something I'm missing, this is exactly how Matt is using those words.