Question

Somehow something feels wrong or dirty by doing this, but it seems to be more semantic than using exports or window. Is this ok?

(function(global){
  var foo,bar;
  foo = 'Private Var';
  global.bar = 'Hello World';
})(window);

Answer 1

Your pattern is fine. Consider this, though:

// global code

(function () {

    var root = this;

    // use root variable to refer to the global object

}).call( this );

This pattern does not rely on the "window" name, which makes it portable. (The name "root" is, of course, arbitrary.)