ajax - Can dynamically loaded JavaScript be unloaded?

Question

I am writing a web application that has a static outer "shell" and a dynamic content section. The dynamic content section has many updates as users navigate the system. When a new content block is loaded, it may also optionally load another JavaScript file. In the name of good housekeeping, I remove script blocks from the DOM that apply to old content blocks, since that JavaScript is no longer needed.

The problem comes next, when I realized that although I have removed the <script> element from the DOM, the JavaScript that was previously evaluated is still available for execution. That makes sense of course, but I'm worried that it may cause a memory leak if the users navigate to a lot of different sections.

The question then, is should I be worried about this situation? If so, is there a way to force the browser to cleanup stale JavaScript?

Answer 1

<theory>You could go with a more object-oriented approach, and build the model in a way that each block of javascript blocks come in as their own objects, with their own methods. Upon unloading it, you simply set that object to null.</theory>