In Cairngorm (Flex Framework), there is Model Locator Pattern, which is similar to Global variables, is it a right pattern, Adobe is saying for flex its best pattern
Adobe Consulting team conceived the Model Locator pattern as a best
practice for Flex developers to adopt.
The Model Locator pattern is unique
because it is not a pattern we
borrowed from the Core J2EE Pattern
catalog. Instead, we created this
pattern particularly for Flex
application development. Our
motivation was to have a single place
where the application state is held in
a Flex application and where view
components are able to “locate” the
client-side model that they wish to
render. Our Model Locator pattern
strategy encourages the use of data
binding so that view components bind
directly to the client-side state held
in the single instance of the
ModelLocator class. In this way,
whenever the model is updated in
ModelLocator, all view components
binding to the model receive
notifications (through the underlying
data-binding mechanism) and update
themselves to render the new model on
the client.
From what I am reading, I suspect that you are talking about Cairngorm 2 and its advised best practices. You should know that the Cairngorm framework has changed drastically since version 2.
There now is a newer version, Cairngorm 3 which is more like a set of guidelines, tools and libraries which you can incorporate in a project that is created with any other Flex application framework.
I would advise you to look into some of the new(er) frameworks like RobotLegs, Parsley or Spring ActionScript
Cheers