Cross-platform way of referring to the global object.

global.js

(function (glob) {
    // glob points to global object
}(typeof window !== 'undefined' ? window : global));

Why not just (function(root) { /* use |root| here */ }(this)); or, if you’re in an untrusted environment (where this may refer to something other than the global object), Function('return this')();?

The first approach doesn’t work in Node.js modules, because in module scope, this does not refer to the global object. I’m intrigued that the second approach works, but I try to stay away from eval and Function as much as I can.

The first approach doesn’t work in Node.js modules, because in module scope, this does not refer to the global object.

True (and that’s covered by my second solution) but when do you need a reference to the real global object in Node.js modules? Not very often. Most of the time you just want to assign something to module.exports so that it can be used outside of the module.

That said, here is an example of an exception to this, where a CSS property is added to the global object: https://github.com/mathiasbynens/CSS.escape/blob/master/css.escape.js But other than weird DOM polyfills like this I don’t think there’s a real use case for getting the true global object in a Node.js module.

Absolutely! Language shims may be another use case, but also a rare one.