Crockford introduces a pattern in the deentityify method to create a module. He claims:
The module pattern takes advantage of function scope and close to create relationships that are binding and private. In this example, only the deentityify method has access to the entity data structure.
Distilling to remove his custom functions, I think the code boils down to...
String.prototype.deentityify = function() {
var entity = {
quot: '"',
lt: '<',
gt: '>'
};
return function() {
return this.replace(/&([^&;]+);/g, function(a, b) {
var r = entity[b];
return typeof r === 'string' ? r : a;
}); //close function(a,b)
}; //close the returned function
} /* close top level */ (); /* but evaluate it so deentitify becomes the returned fcn(!)
Problem is I don't see why this additional layer of indirection is necessary. Is this code not equivalent?
String.prototype.deentityify = function() {
var entity = {
quot: '"',
lt: '<',
gt: '>'
};
// return function() {
return this.replace(/&([^&;]+);/g, function(a, b) {
var r = entity[b];
return typeof r === 'string' ? r : a;
}); //close function(a,b)
// }; //close the returned function
} /* close top level, don't evaluate