JSLint reports "Unexpected dangling" character in an underscore prefixed variable name

Question

I know that some people consider the presence of a leading underscore to imply that a variable is "private," that such privacy is a fiction, and assume this is why JSLint reports such names with an error message.

I use Google Analytics on a Web site I am building. I make reference to GA's variables, such as "_gaq."

I am trying to get my JS code to be 100% JSLint clean (I'm not religious about my coding style, and so will go with Mr. Crockford's counsel). That said, I can't do anything about Google's variables names... so, I guess I can't get 100% "clean."

I post here in case I've misunderstood the message, and can do something to comply with JSLint practices.

Answer 1

Ah, I've got this handled... I wrap the statements that use the underscore prefixed variables with JSLint commands to disable, then re-enable this class of error:

/*jslint nomen: true*/ ... statement(s) with _var ... /*jslint nomen: false*/ 

Answer 2

The best way to handle this is just to enable the "Tolerate dangling _ in identifiers" (nomen) option. See http://www.jslint.com/lint.html for details...