http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=719592


in reply to Lexical closures

I cannot speak to Python, CLisp, or Scheme, but I can explain why Javascript doesn't behave like Perl. Perl detects when a lexical is being closed over and provides a new scratchpad for each closure. This means that your closure factory does exactly what you intend. In Javascript, a new scratchpad is only provided by a function, not a loop. So, to get the equivalent behavior, you have to do the following: 
flist = [];
for ( var x = 0; x <= 2; x++ ) {
    flist.push( make_closure( x ) );
}

for ( var f in flist ) {
    alert( f(2) );
}

function make_closure( x ) { return function (v) { x * v } }

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This is a common idiom when creating callbacks for event handlers in JS applications. It's bloody annoying and Eichmann has admitted that this is one of the 5 biggest issues to be addressed in JS2.0 (along with namespaces, non-sucky concatenation vs. addition, etc).
My criteria for good software:
  1. Does it work?
  2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom