When do I get this error?

The "Weird assignment" error is thrown when JSLint encounters an assignment expression in which the left hand side and right hand side expressions are the same. In the following example we declare a variable x and then attempt to assign it to itself:

var x = 10;
x = x;

Why do I get this error?

This error is raised to highlight a potentially confusing and completely pointless piece of code. There are almost no situations in which you would need to assign something to itself. There is, however, at least one valid use case.

In the browser you can assign window.location to itself to force a page reload without reposting any form data. Calling window.location.reload() can cause a browser warning when form data will be reposted. To avoid that warning it's common to use one of the following patterns:

/*jslint browser: true */
window.location = window.location;
window.location.href = window.location.href;

As you can see, both of those cause the "Weird assignment" error. It's a simple fix though. Since window.location is effectively an alias for window.location.href they are interchangable which means we can make the two sides of the assignment different:

/*jslint browser: true */
window.location = window.location.href;