var self = this?

Question

Using instance methods as callbacks for event handlers changes the scope of this from \"My instance\" to \"Whatever just called the callback\"

Answer 1

One solution to this is to bind all your callback to your object with javascript's bind method.

You can do this with a named method,

function MyNamedMethod() {
  // You can now call methods on "this" here 
}

doCallBack(MyNamedMethod.bind(this)); 

Or with an anonymous callback

doCallBack(function () {
  // You can now call methods on "this" here
}.bind(this));

Doing these instead of resorting to var self = this shows you understand how the binding of this behaves in javascript and doesn't rely on a closure reference.

Also, the fat arrow operator in ES6 basically is the same a calling .bind(this) on an anonymous function:

doCallback( () => {
  // You can reference "this" here now
});