Redundant template helpers

[ai10]

Is there a potential problem with this approach

Template.question.helpers({
    helpMe: function () {
      return 'help';
});

Template.question_phone = Template.question
Template.question_tablet = Template.question

Or should we do

 Template.question_phone = _.extend(Template.question, ???

[mystor]

The best way to deal with your problem (that you want to have the same helpers on multiple templates) would probably be to do something like this:

var helpers = {
    helpMe: function() {
        return 'help';
    }
};

Template.question.helpers(helpers);
Template.question_phone.helpers(helpers);
Template.question_tablet.helpers(helpers);

Or, if you wanted to have a slightly different helper set on tablets for example you could do something like this:

var helpers = {
    helpMe: function() {
        return 'help';
    }
};

Template.question.helpers(helpers);
Template.question_phone.helpers(helpers);
Template.question_tablet.helpers(_.extend({
    helpMeTablet: function() {
        return 'help from your tablet';
    }
}, helpers));

That should copy the properties from the helpers object into the new object and pass it to Template.question_tablet.helpers().

I would not overwrite the template object with another template's object. I've never done it, but I can imagine that it wouldn't work at all. If I had to guess, it would replace both question_phone and question_tablet with question, which I don't think is what you want to do.