Can't populate array called `status`

The assignment of your status variable, clashes with the window.status property.

Chrome simply refuses to make the assignment.

The window.status property, sets or gets the text in the status bar at the bottom of the browser.

I would recommend you to either, rename your variable or use an anonymous function to create a new scope, also remember to always use var for declaring variables:

(function () {
  var status = [];

  for (var i = 0; i < 8; i++)
    status[i] = false;

  alert(status.length);
})();

Change the variable name. Seems like status is a property of window, and Chrome makes it inmutable . I didn't expect that, too.

The problem here is what status is attached to. You are using it off the global/window scope.

Back in the good ole days we were able to set the text in the status bar. How you would do it is by setting window.status to a string value. So what you are doing is NOT setting a variable, but changing the string of the browser's status bar.