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* Docs: named functions and function declarations * No more prototypal `extends`; update docs and example * More comprehensive documentation of the existential operator; closes #1631 * Better document operators, including `from` * No fat arrow class methods anymore * Destructuring shouldn’t say that default values are applied in case of undefined or null * Spinoff generator and async functions into their own sections; reorder things so that the sections on functions come just before classes, and destructuring goes next to the operators (which discuss assignment) * Rewrite “CoffeeScript 2” section, making it less practical and more explanatory; move practical info into “Usage” * Update “Variable Scoping and Lexical Safety” section to remove incorrect reference to Ruby (fixes #2360), add missing details about the safety wrapper, add note about `let`/`const`. * Updated browser compiler * Updated docs * Rewrite Literate CoffeeScript breaking changes * Split apart the “Breaking Changes” and “Unsupported Features” sections into separate sidebar items and files * Add example of `not in`, closes #3281 * Fix words in bold that should be in backticks * Consolidate some breaking changes sections * Add Node API documentation; closes #3551 * Move the chaining documentation out of the changelog into its own section
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Lexical Scoping and Variable Safety
The CoffeeScript compiler takes care to make sure that all of your variables are properly declared within lexical scope — you never need to write var yourself.
codeFor('scope', 'inner')
Notice how all of the variable declarations have been pushed up to the top of the closest scope, the first time they appear. outer is not redeclared within the inner function, because it’s already in scope; inner within the function, on the other hand, should not be able to change the value of the external variable of the same name, and therefore has a declaration of its own.
Because you don’t have direct access to the var keyword, it’s impossible to shadow an outer variable on purpose, you may only refer to it. So be careful that you’re not reusing the name of an external variable accidentally, if you’re writing a deeply nested function.
Although suppressed within this documentation for clarity, all CoffeeScript output (except in files with import or export statements) is wrapped in an anonymous function: (function(){ … })();. This safety wrapper, combined with the automatic generation of the var keyword, make it exceedingly difficult to pollute the global namespace by accident. (The safety wrapper can be disabled with the bare option, and is unnecessary and automatically disabled when using modules.)
If you’d like to create top-level variables for other scripts to use, attach them as properties on window; attach them as properties on the exports object in CommonJS; or use an export statement. If you’re targeting both CommonJS and the browser, the existential operator (covered below), gives you a reliable way to figure out where to add them: exports ? this.
Since CoffeeScript takes care of all variable declaration, it is not possible to declare variables with ES2015’s let or const. This is intentional; we feel that the simplicity gained by not having to think about variable declaration outweighs the benefit of having three separate ways to declare variables.