Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%2 ... science%29In computer science, a closure (also lexical closure, function closure or function value) is a function together with a referencing environment for the nonlocal names (free variables) of that function. Such a function is said to be "closed over" its free variables. The referencing environment binds the nonlocal names to the corresponding variables in scope at the time the closure is created, additionally extending their lifetime to at least as long as the lifetime of the closure itself.
See also: http://code.google.com/closure/
If you query: closure jquery
you will see that closures have a central palce in jQuery, so central that the Book Learning jQuery http://www.learningjquery.com/ ( http://www.packtpub.com/learning-jquery-1.3/book ) has a whole appendix C about the concept. At the same time that book also mention other important subjects related to jQuery like implicite iteration and Lambda (anonymous) functions.
query:
jquery lambda functions
jquery anonymous functions
Related links:
JavaScript Closures Demystified
http://www.hackification.com/2008/11/27 ... to-jquery/
http://docs.jquery.com/How_jQuery_Works
http://www.learningjquery.com/2006/09/s ... ial-lambda
http://forum.jquery.com/topic/jquery-an ... tion-calls
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4964 ... -in-jquery
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1690 ... ver-jquery
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3594 ... and-events
Forthcoming book around November 2011: Learning jQuery - third edition
http://www.packtpub.com/learning-jquery ... cript/book