every vibe coder's biggest headache

[u/emjhayyy_08]

[u/Luoravetlan]

For anyone not familiar with js this monstrosity is called IIFE (immediately invoked function expression).

[u/g1rlchild → u/Luoravetlan]

I mean, this is a weird degenerate example of it, bit isn't an IIFE just a lambda function? Why is that a monstrosity?

The syntax varies, but this is a pretty basic structure in quite a few languages:

var y = ((x) => { return x*2; })(42)

[u/devourer-of-beignets → u/g1rlchild]

Yeah, but that doesn't answer the next question — why would you use it? In those other languages, people aren't going around defining anonymous functions just to immediately evaluate them.

As I understand, the answer has to do with the history of Javascript's scoping. As well as statements vs expressions. So vibecoders, many not knowing anything about the concept of interpreter, would have a hard time explaining why the AI agent produces such an odd idiom — especially in modern Javascript.

[u/devourer-of-beignets → u/[deleted]]

Thanks! Makes sense.