What do you call this JavaScript syntax, so I can research it?

Question

1) In the following code, what is the reasoning behind making gameOfLive a variable and not just function gameOfLife()?

2) What is go

Answer 1

1. In JavaScript, functions are first class objects. You could store them in objects (variables) and pass them as arguments to functions. Every function is actually a Function object.

2. gol is an object, which is being initialized using the object literal notation.