+* Another increment would be to add implicit-style mutable variables, as we explained above. You could do this with or without also adding passing-by-reference.
+
+ The semantic machinery for implicit-style mutable variables will have something playing the role of a reference cell. However these won't be **first-class values** in the language. For something to be a first-class value, it has to be possible to assign that value to variables, to pass it as an argument to functions, and to return it as the result of a function call. Now for some of these criteria it's debatable that they are already here satisfied. For example, in some sense the introduction of a new implicitly mutable variable (`let x = 1 in ...`) will associate a reference cell with `x`. That won't be what `x` evaluates to, but it will be what the assignment function *binds* `x` to, behind the scenes. Similarly, if we bring in passing by reference, then again in some sense we are passing reference cells as arguments to functions. Not explicitly---in a context like:
+
+ let f = (lambda (alias w) -> ...)
+ in let x = 1
+ in f (x)
+
+ the expression `w` won't evaluate to a reference cell anywhere inside the `...`. But it will be associated with a reference cell, in the same way that `x` is (and indeed, with the same reference cell).
+
+ However, in language with implicit-style mutation, even when combined with passing by reference, what you're clearly not able to do is to return a reference cell as the result of a function call, or indeed of any expression. This is connected to---perhaps it's the same point as---the fact that `x` and `w` don't evalute to reference cells, but rather to the values that the reference cell they're implicitly associated with contains, at that stage in the computation.
+
+* A third grade of mutation involvement is to have explicit-style mutation. Here we might say we have not just mutable variables but also first-class values whose contents can be altered. That is, we have not just mutable variables but **mutable values**.
+
+ This introduces some interesting new conceptual possibilities. For example, what should be the result of the following fragment?
+
+ let ycell = ref 1
+ in let xcell = ref 1
+ in ycell = xcell
+
+ Are the two reference cell values equal or aren't they? Well, at this stage in the computation, they're qualitatively indiscernible. They're both `int ref`s containing the same `int`. And that is in fact the relation that `=` expresses in OCaml. In Scheme the analogous relation is spelled `equal?` Computer scientists sometimes call this relation "structural equality."
+
+ On the other hand, these are numerically *two* reference cells. If we mutate one of them, the other one doesn't change. For example:
+
+ let ycell = ref 1
+ in let xcell = ref 1
+ in ycell := 2
+ in !xcell;;
+ (* evaluates to 1, not to 2 *)
+
+ So we have here the basis for introducing a new kind of equality predicate into our language, which tests not for qualitative indiscernibility but for numerical equality. In OCaml this relation is expressed by the double equals `==`. In Scheme it's spelled `eq?` Computer scientists sometimes call this relation "physical equality". Using this equality predicate, our comparison of `ycell` and `xcell` will be `false`, even if they then happen to contain the same `int`.
+
+ Isn't this interesting? Intuitively, elsewhere in math, you might think that qualitative indicernibility always suffices for numerical identity. Well, perhaps this needs discussion. In some sense the imaginary numbers ι and -ι are qualitatively indiscernible, but numerically distinct. However, arguably they're not *fully* qualitatively indiscernible. They don't both bear all the same relations to ι for instance. But then, if we include numerical identity as a relation, then `ycell` and `xcell` don't both bear all the same relations to `ycell`, either. Yet there is still a useful sense in which they can be understood to be qualitatively equal---at least, at a given stage in a computation.
+
+ Terminological note: in OCaml, `=` and `<>` express the qualitative (in)discernibility relations, also expressed in Scheme with `equal?`. In OCaml, `==` and `!=` express the numerical (non)identity relations, also expressed in Scheme with `eq?`. `=` also has other syntactic roles in OCaml, such as in the form `let x = value in ...`. In other languages, like C and Python, `=` is commonly used just for assignment (of either of the sorts we've now seen: `let x = value in ...` or `change x to value in ...`). The symbols `==` and `!=` are commonly used to express qualitative (in)discernibility in these languages. Python expresses numerical (non)identity with `is` and `is not`. What an unattractive mess. Don't get me started on Haskell (qualitative discernibility is `/=`) and Lua (physical (non)identity is `==` and `~=`).
+
+ The `=` and `==` predicates in OCaml do not between them cover all the natural cases you may want to test for. For instance, if `ycell` is a reference cell, then `ref !ycell` will always be a numerically distinct reference cell containing the same value. We get this pattern of comparisons:
+
+ ycell == ycell
+ ycell != ref !ycell