pattern « Var « Javascript Data Type Q&A

1. Why does this regexp work as var pattern = / ... / but not as a var pattern = RegExp("...")?    stackoverflow.com

<script type="text/javascript">
var str="Jestem bardzo, bardzo zadowolony. Mo?na powiedzie?, ?e jestem równie? uszcz??liwiony i uspokojony."; 

patt1=new RegExp( "\bi\b", "g"); //<--- (to find the single word: "i")

document.write(str.match(patt1));
</script>

2. Is var self = this; a bad pattern?    stackoverflow.com

I find myself needing:

var self = this;

3. Javascript single var pattern. Am I overloading it?    stackoverflow.com

I've read in Stoyan Stefanov book about single var pattern. Also it's good by JSLint. But I've noticed in my code that I maybe overload this pattern. It occurs that whole my ...