The concepts that we are going to discuss in this chapter are in some ways very similar, and in other ways quite different. It's common to find some confusion as to their real meanings and there are plenty of web pages that misuse terms. You could even say that all the transformations in this chapter are roughly equivalent since they let you transform a function into another one that fixes some parameters, leaving others free and eventually leading to the same result. Okay, I agree, this isn't very clear! So, let's start by clearing the air, and providing some short definitions, which we will expand on later. (If you feel that your eyes are glazing over, please just skip this section and come back to it later!) Yes, you may find the following descriptions a bit perplexing, but bear with us—we'll go into more detail in just a bit:

• Currying...