Are design patterns in JavaScript helpful? And what exactly are they?

Question

I have been learning more and more javascript; it's a necessity at my job. We have a web application that uses a lot of javascript and I will be doing more and more every day. I have read bits and pieces about design patterns, but was wondering if someone could just give me a cut and dry example and definition. Are they something that would benefit me? Or is it more high level?

Answer 1

Design patterns are generic and usually elegant solutions to well-known programming problems. Without knowing what problem you're working in, I would say "Yes" they can help make your code more manageable.

This link and this link make some reference to design patterns in Javascript. They may be worth reviewing.

Answer 2

One of the most practical and easy to use JavaScript-specific design pattern I've encountered is the Module Pattern, which is a modified Singleton pattern that "namespaces" related code and prevents the global scope from getting cluttered with variables and functions that might conflict with each other in a complicated page.