re: using 'this'
I work on a system that is developed by multiple teams in multiple geographically diverse locations. The folks in NY use PC's and have IDEA (intellisense, etc.). The folks in London use Solaris and pretty much work with vi (IDEA hasn't been deployed there yet). As such, the London folks don't have the luxury of code-highlighting, so even though we (in NY) can readily see the different highlighting for class fields, using 'this.xxx' really makes their lives easier.
Different strokes....
My $0.02