The special features of WebL, like service combinators and markup algebra, are integrated in a small programming language core. Stripped of special features, the core language is conceptually similar to most other procedural programming languages. To lay some ground work, and to understand the examples introduced in later chapters, we first need to study the language core without touching the special features the language introduces for handling web pages. This chapter introduces many of the essential and basic language concepts that you will need to know in later chapters.