Teach Cromer how to do JavaScript

gistfile1.js

// wrapped in anonymous function to protect against
// leaks to global NS
(function () { 
  // Factory to create objects
  var make_thing = function (initial_value) {
    var thing = that = {};

    thing.value = initial_value;
    thing.dosomething = function () { 
      return that.value;  // 'that' is 'closed over'
    };

    return thing;
  };

  var object_array = [];

  var herp = function (objects) {
    objects[0] = make_thing(1); 
  };

  var derp = function (objects) {
    return objects[0].dosomething();
  };

  herp(object_array);
  var result = derp(object_array);
  console.log(result);
}());

Unless you have a specific reason, factories > constructors.

@makuro makes a good point. My assumption was Cromer was dealing with a "Thing" that he didn't have much control over.

Kind of a contrived example...

I don't think 'thing' is any more protected than 'that'. They are both references to the same object. Changing 'thing' also changes 'that'.

Yeah, I wasn't really going for 'hiding' or doing any public/private things. That is definitely an important pattern with JavaScript objects.

Declaring a "that" variable is making use of closures in JavaScript to disambiguate what the the current "this" is when that function executes.