Help needed on trace() to locate user var reference and contents

I would expect that each name be different, should the attribute be specific to a function.

I don't think you're understanding - \xFFcod is basically a field inside the function object. So every function has its own one. The choice of string/flatstring depends on what was seemed most efficient to Espruino when it was defined.

trace("history")

Again, I don't think you really took in what I said previously. You just defined a String with contents history and you're outputting that, not what was called history.

If you want history, you look at:

#1[r2,l1] Object {
  #2[r1,l2] Name String [1 blocks] "\xFF"    #3[r1,l1] Object {
      #6[r1,l2] Name String [2 blocks] "timers"        #8[r2,l0] Array(0) [ ]
      #9[r1,l2] Name String [2 blocks] "watches"        #11[r2,l0] Array(0) [ ]
      #15[r1,l2] Name String [2 blocks] "history"        #19[r1,l0] Array(54) [

And go back down the trace output, using the name in the lines above:

global["\xff"]["history"]

for (let [key, value] of Object.entries(aaa)) {

Espruino doesn't support that syntax.

global.forEach(element => console.log(element));

A few lines earlier you did typeof global and found it was an object. Objects don't have forEach.

Object.keys(global).forEach(name=> ...); is fine though

As typeof trace() returns ="undefined" I'm starting to wonder if it is in fact just a function that prints to the console

Yes, it prints.

a small sample to get going would be appreciated.

Ok, so there's what I mentioned above with history.

So let's say you're after 637... I've copied your trace contents below, but have removed any lines of the same indenting to make it clearer.

>trace()
#1[r2,l1] Object {
  #428[r1,l2] Name String [1 blocks] "dl"    #438[r1,l0] Function {
      #437[r1,l2] Name String [1 blocks] "\xFFcod"        #637[r1,l0] FlatString [150 blocks] "

So now, you just work back. You can see \xffcod then dl then you're back at the global object, so:

global["dl"]["\xffcod"]