What is the point of returning methods in the following example when you can accomplish the same thing by just declaring the NS straightforward in the second code snippet?
1:
var NS = function() {
return {
method_1 : function() {
// do stuff here
},
method_2 : function() {
// do stuff here
}
};
}();
2:
var NS = {
method_1 : function() { do stuff },
method_2 : function() { do stuff }
};
In your particular example there is no advantage. But you can use the first version to hide some variables:
var NS = function() {
var private = 0;
return {
method_1 : function() {
// do stuff here
private += 1;
},
method_2 : function() {
// do stuff here
return private;
}
};
}();
This is referred to as a Module in Douglas Crockford's "JavaScript: The Good Parts". If you search the web you should be able to find full explanations.
Basically the only thing that creates a new variable scope in Javascript is a function, so most global abatement revolves around either using properties of an object (NS in this case) or using a function to create a variable scope (the private var in this example).
