What is meant by “public function can’t be overridden if a patch is necessary.” in Addy’s description of the Revealing Module Pattern?

Compare an object created by using an object literal to one created by the Revealing Module Pattern.

Here is one created as an object literal.

function makeGreeter(name){
  return {
    getName: function(){ return name;},
    sayHello: function(){console.log("Hello, " + this.getName());}
  }
}

var greeter = makeGreeter("Danny");
greeter.sayHello; // "Hello, Danny"
greeter.getName = function(){ return "George";}
greeter.sayHello(); // "Hello, George"

When you override the public method getName on the returned object, the sayHello method which depends on getName picks up the change. This is because in the Object Literal style, references to public functions are made via this, the returned object.

However, when you use the Revealing Module Pattern,

function makeGreeter(name){
  var getName = function(){ return name;},
    sayHello = function(){console.log("Hello, " + getName());};
  return {
    getName: getName,
    sayHello: sayHello
  }
}

var greeter = makeGreeter("Danny");
greeter.sayHello; // "Hello, Danny"
greeter.getName = function(){ return "George";}
greeter.sayHello(); // "Hello, Danny"

The RMP greeter will not pick up the override to the public getName method. This is because when RMP functions reference other functions (both public and private), they refer to the private closure copy rather than to the public function attached to the returned object.

It is for this reason I regard the Revealing Module Pattern as an anti-pattern.