JavaScript: The Good Parts

Global Abatement

JavaScript makes it easy to define global variables that can hold all of the assets of your application. Unfortunately, global variables weaken the resiliency of programs and should be avoided.

One way to minimize the use of global variables is to create a single global variable for your application:

var MYAPP = {};

That variable then becomes the container for your application:

MYAPP.stooge = {
    "first-name": "Joe",
    "last-name": "Howard"
};

MYAPP.flight = {
    airline: "Oceanic",
    number: 815,
    departure: {
        IATA: "SYD",
        time: "2004-09-22 14:55",
        city: "Sydney"
    },
    arrival: {
        IATA: "LAX",
        time: "2004-09-23 10:42",
        city: "Los Angeles"
    }
};

By reducing your global footprint to a single name, you significantly reduce the chance of bad interactions with other applications, widgets, or libraries. Your program also becomes easier to read because it is obvious that MYAPP.stooge refers to a top-level structure. In the next chapter, we will see ways to use closure for information hiding, which is another effective global abatement technique.