var bFunc = function() { return this };
var b = {name: "b", fun: bFunc};
b.fun();
// => some global object, probably Window
The author uses this example to explain how the "self-reference semantics conflict with the notion of functional programming". Whatever that means. I really don't know what he meant and I will never know because the author doesn't get JavaScript. I had the same itchy feeling before this page; somehow the explanations are not clear, feels like the author himself doesn't "get it". I hoped that maybe the introductory sections don't try to explain what's going on and later in the book he does. Then I scanned the remainder of the book, just for the sake of this entry. No, he doesn't. Whenever he touches a topic that goes deeper than the conceptual level it's clear that he doesn't have enough understanding to explain it well. Or as the example above shows: sometimes he is simply wrong.
On a side note, and this is not the fault of the book, Underscore itself is a questionable functional library. It's a library that provides some higher order functions which resemble the ones used in real functional programming. But that's it. It's a shallow substitute and doesn't help you master thinking in functional programming. The guy in that video (Brian Lonsdorf) has an online video course. I haven't seen it yet, but I believe it must be a good one. However what I can strongly recommend is if you want to learn real functional programming in JavaScript go and read JavaScript Allongé from Raganwald. For free if you wish. Then pay as much as you want to. Because that book is a piece of art. From somebody who does understand functional programming and does understand JavaScript.
