> CoffeeScript was a godsend here, simply as an explicit compile and validation step. > Automatic local scoping (no var necessary) is a sane choice, and safe loop scoping with for x in y do (x) -> erases a whole category of errors. > indentation

Thought it might be useful to others seeking these advantages that passing your JS through JSHint in the build process could provide these benefits. It's not a cure-all, of course--the author cites other benefits that linting can't achieve. But if you're a like-minded developer looking for assurances along these lines in JavaScript, check out http://jshint.com and https://github.com/jshint/jshint/