title: Load "Vanilla" Javascript Libraries into Node.js
body: <p>There are some third party Javascript libraries that have some functionality I would like to use in a Node.js server. (Specifically I want to use a QuadTree javascript library that I found.) But these libraries are just straightforward <code>.js</code> files and not "Node.js libraries". </p>
  
  <p>As such, these libraries don't follow the <code>exports.var_name</code> syntax that Node.js expects for its modules. As far as I understand that means when you do <code>module = require('module_name');</code> or <code>module = require('./path/to/file.js');</code> you'll end up with a module with no publicly accessible functions, etc.</p>
  
  <p>My question then is "How do I load an arbitrary javascript file into Node.js such that I can utilize its functionality without having to rewrite it so that it does do <code>exports</code>?"</p>
  
  <p>I'm very new to Node.js so please let me know if there is some glaring hole in my understanding of how it works.</p>
  
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  <p><strong>EDIT</strong>: Researching into things more and I now see that the module loading pattern that Node.js uses is actually part of a recently developed standard for loading Javascript libraries called <a href="http://wiki.commonjs.org/wiki/Modules/1.1" rel="noreferrer">CommonJS</a>. It says this right on the <a href="http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.4.1/api/modules.html" rel="noreferrer">module doc page for Node.js</a>, but I missed that until now.</p>
  
  <p>It may end up being that the answer to my question is "wait until your library's authors get around to writing a CommonJS interface or do it your damn self."</p>