Avoid global namespace polluting

[alexstrat]

As you might know, it's not recommanded to pollute global namespace in node.js.. Some test frameworks like Mocha fails as soon as you try to define a glabol variable..

This fix aims at preventing global namespace pollution in node.

Please merge if interested and update on npm please.

[ded]

that's strange. i haven't had problems with this before in Node. Plus, it shouldn't be defining a global anyhow... since it's set to module.exports

[alexstrat]

Yes, you're right, there is no (obvious) problem..

Indeed, defining a global variable is not a problem itself, but can lead to (see, for instance, this... yes, it's crockford, but..). That's why it's not recommended to use global variable when not needed. And thus some code quality tools (like jsLint, jsHint) and test frameworks complains when using it.

When using module.exports (or whatever module loader system), you don't need global variables anymore, which would pollute the global namespace. However, in klass, the variable klass is defined (context = this = global where global is the global namespace in node) globaly whatever the case is.

You can test it :

require('klass');
typeof global.klass //'function'
typeof klass //'function'

That is even more dangerous, in the case of klass, because :

• klass is a utility module that can be used in complex systems with stacked dependencies where you forgot that klass is a global variable
• klass is a name of variable that is tempting to use for javascript developers since class is a reserved keyword (!)

Hope you get my point of view ! :)

[ded]

oh whoa. i forgot that was left there. none of my other modules are doing that... looks like i just forgot to update this one. i'll have a bit of rearrange

[alexstrat]

Myes.. I didn't understand for what purpose was this context.klass = klass there, since you already got this.. I think you can simply delete this line, nope ?

[alexstrat]

Any update here ?

[0b10011]

Fixed by c33b3c8114e4243c63619772b156f480d0d8af28?

[ded]

@bfrohs yup.