Wolframe glossary

Normalization Function

A Normalization Function is a function taking an atomic value as input and returning an atomic value as output. It validates the input and throws an exception if the validation failes. It transforms the value into a normalized form.

Variant Type

A variant type represents an atomic value with its type. The value can appear as an integral or floating or fixed point number or as a boolean or as a string. The variant types helps to interface with interpreted non strongly typed or value typed languages. The name "variant" for this type has been chosen because it is used in many other systems (Microsoft COM/.NET, Qt, boost) as name for this kind of a union type.