A that
is a Javascript object assembled according to the philosophy of that
-ism. Rather than using Javascript's dangerous this
, and prototypal and constructor idioms, a that
is a simple direct assemblage of functions and data, put together in a closure scope which is used to house a reference to itself. Since this hidden that
cannot be rebound, this kind of object is safe from tampering. The name that
-ism is taken from its first successful presentation by Douglas Crockford, by contrast with this
. Every top-level Fluid Component is a that
, as well as many other objects around the framework.
More details and references on that
-ism are in the glossary at Framework Glossary#that.