I have recently started using require.js (along with Backbone.js, jQuery, and a handful of other JavaScript libs) and I love the module pattern (here's a nice synopsis if you're unfamiliar: http://www.adequatelygood.com/2010/3/JavaScript-Module-Pattern-In-Depth). Something I'm running up against is best practices on incorporating libs that don't (out of the box) support the module pattern. For example, jQuery without modification is going to load into a global jQuery variable and that's that. Require.js recognizes this and provides an example project for download with a (slightly) modified version of jQuery to incorporate with a require.js project.

This goes against everything I've ever learned about using external libs - never modify the source. I can list a ton of reasons. Regardless, this is not an approach I'm comfortable with.

I have been using a mixed approach - wherein I build/load the "traditional" JS libraries in a "traditional" way (available in the global namespace) and then using the module pattern for all of my application code. This seems okay to me, but it bugs me because one of the real beauties of the module pattern (no globals) is getting perverted.

Anyone else got a better solution to this problem?