#pragma strict and GetComponent()

[system]

I am learning unity using tutorials. I learned the #pragma strict when using GetComponent generates this error:
Assets/scriptObjA.js(12,69): BCE0019: ‘foundVar’ is not a member of ‘UnityEngine.Component’.

MonoDevelop-unity adds the #pragma strict to my java script as default. is not used in the tutorials, is it a good practice to use it?

When I remove #pragma strict from the script, the code works correctly. Should I be concerned?
Is there a better technique to create/access global variable/functions?

I have parsed the code down from the tutorials down to this example:
The error is generated accessing a variable found in a script that is a component of a prefabsceneManager from an object called prefabObjA. Here are the two scripts:

---

scriptSceneManager.js

---

var foundVar : float = 20;

function Start () {
}

function Update () {
}

function FoundMe () {
}

---

scriptObjA.js

---

var varK 		: int = 3;
var lookFor 	: GameObject;

function Start () {

}

function Update () {
	print( lookFor.transform.GetComponent("scriptSceneManager").name );
	print( lookFor.transform.GetComponent("scriptSceneManager").foundVar );

}

---

I am assigning the variable lookFor in the interface with the prefabSceneManager that has scriptSceneManager.js as a component.
Thanks in advance for your help/advice.

[Eric5h5]

Yes, you should use #pragma strict. It’s required when publishing to non-desktop platforms (iOS etc.) anyway, so if you intend to do that at some point, it’s best to be used to it. As for the actual problem, never use strings with GetComponent. It’s slower and makes GetComponent return Component instead of the actual type.