How do JavaScript closures work?

Two brief summaries

• When a function (foo) declares other functions (bar and baz), the family of local variables created in foo is not destroyed when the function exits. The variables merely become invisible to the outside world. foo can therefore cunningly return the functions bar and baz, and they can continue to read, write and communicate with each other through this closed-off family of variables ("the closure") that nobody else can meddle with, not even someone who calls foo again in future.

• A closure is one way of supporting first-class functions; it is an expression that can reference variables within its scope (when it was first declared), be assigned to a variable, be passed as an argument to a function, or be returned as a function result.