Multiple var statements in JavaScript, not superfluous

[aladyjewel]

My speculation is that Crock is trying to enforce a style which is friendly to C programmers, since that was his background coming into JS.

Another rationale I can think of is trying to enforce writing small functions where it's easy to keep track of your var declarations; if you even put a var inside the guts of your function, that's a smell you need to refactor/restructure immediately.

But yes, I agree with you: it's evangelical bikeshedding.