Can you provide a tangible instance where prototypal inheritance is used in everyday life?

Question

Can you provide a tangible instance where prototypal inheritance is used in everyday life?

While I'm trying to enhance my skills in JavaScript, the lack of using it at work has made it challenging. I have grasped the concept of Constructor functions and how to create new Objects that inherit properties from them.

However, for me to truly understand something, I need to apply it in a real project and witness its functionality firsthand.

The problem lies in the fact that most examples explaining inheritance use scenarios like these:

function Apple (type) {
    this.type = type;
    this.color = "red";
    this.getInfo = getAppleInfo;
}

or

function Car( model, year, miles ) {

  this.model = model;
  this.year = year;
  this.miles = miles;

  this.toString = function () {
    return this.model + " has done " + this.miles + " miles";
  };
}

or

function makeBaby(parent, name) {

  var baby = Object.create(parent);

  baby.name = name;

  return baby;
}

Although these examples (Fruit, Cars, and Parents) are useful for learning the concepts, they do not provide much insight into practical application.

Is there anyone who can share an example of how prototypal inheritance is utilized in a high-level web application?

javascript prototypal-inheritance

Answer 1

Answer №1

Not only does prototypal inheritance play a role, but it also has implications for classical inheritance scenarios.

In essence, the goal is to expand on the properties and functionalities of one class by incorporating them into another. Take, for example, a view class with a draw method that facilitates screen rendering—a prime instance of code reuse.

Rather than painstakingly replicating all the attributes of one class in another manually, one can streamline the process by extending from a base class. This way, all existing functionalities are inherited, allowing room for additional custom implementations.

An elaboration through an illustration of code devoid of inheritance:

/**
 * View1
 */
function View1 {
  this.viewId = 'view-1';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

View1.prototype.draw = function () {
  var ourView = document.getElementById(this.viewId);

  // Note: The redundancy is intentional for illustrative purposes.
  var newElement = document.createElement('div');
  ourView.appendChild(newElement);
  
  ourView.innerHTML = this.template;
}


/**
 * View2
 */
function View2 {
  this.viewId = 'view-2';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

View2.prototype.draw = function () {
  var ourView = document.getElementById(this.id);

  // Note: The redundancy is intentional for illustrative purposes.
  var newElement = document.createElement('div');
  ourView.appendChild(newElement);
  
  ourView.innerHTML = this.template;
}

The above demonstrates significant code replication.

In contrast, consider how inheritance is utilized in the following code snippet:

/**
 * View1
 */
function View1 {
  this.viewId = 'view-1';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

View1.prototype.draw = function () {
  var ourView = document.getElementById(this.viewId);

  // Note: The redundancy is intentional for illustrative purposes.
  var newElement = document.createElement('div');
  ourView.appendChild(newElement);
  
  ourView.innerHTML = this.template;
};

/**
 * View2
 */
function View2 {
  this.viewId = 'view-2';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

Object.assign(View2.prototype, View1.prototype);

Here, View2 effectively leverages the functionality of View1 without the need to re-implement anything—an elegant reusability feature.

Answer 2

Not only does prototypal inheritance play a role, but it also has implications for classical inheritance scenarios.

In essence, the goal is to expand on the properties and functionalities of one class by incorporating them into another. Take, for example, a view class with a draw method that facilitates screen rendering—a prime instance of code reuse.

Rather than painstakingly replicating all the attributes of one class in another manually, one can streamline the process by extending from a base class. This way, all existing functionalities are inherited, allowing room for additional custom implementations.

An elaboration through an illustration of code devoid of inheritance:

/**
 * View1
 */
function View1 {
  this.viewId = 'view-1';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

View1.prototype.draw = function () {
  var ourView = document.getElementById(this.viewId);

  // Note: The redundancy is intentional for illustrative purposes.
  var newElement = document.createElement('div');
  ourView.appendChild(newElement);
  
  ourView.innerHTML = this.template;
}


/**
 * View2
 */
function View2 {
  this.viewId = 'view-2';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

View2.prototype.draw = function () {
  var ourView = document.getElementById(this.id);

  // Note: The redundancy is intentional for illustrative purposes.
  var newElement = document.createElement('div');
  ourView.appendChild(newElement);
  
  ourView.innerHTML = this.template;
}

The above demonstrates significant code replication.

In contrast, consider how inheritance is utilized in the following code snippet:

/**
 * View1
 */
function View1 {
  this.viewId = 'view-1';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

View1.prototype.draw = function () {
  var ourView = document.getElementById(this.viewId);

  // Note: The redundancy is intentional for illustrative purposes.
  var newElement = document.createElement('div');
  ourView.appendChild(newElement);
  
  ourView.innerHTML = this.template;
};

/**
 * View2
 */
function View2 {
  this.viewId = 'view-2';
  this.template = '<some html here>'
}

Object.assign(View2.prototype, View1.prototype);

Here, View2 effectively leverages the functionality of View1 without the need to re-implement anything—an elegant reusability feature.

Answer 3

Answer №2

Implementing prototypal inheritance can be advantageous when utilizing an Object Oriented approach with inheritance to tackle complex problems.

For instance, frameworks like Backbone.js offer foundational classes such as Model, Collection, and View. By extending these base classes in your application, you can customize them for specific functionalities. Consider the following example:

var ProfileSummary = Backbone.View.extend({
  render: function () {
    this.$el.html("Profile summary view");
  }
});

In this case, ProfileSummary inherits all methods and features of Backbone.View, allowing you to adjust the behavior of the render function.

Utilizing the extend method in Backbone facilitates easy extension of classes through prototypal inheritance. Find more information on this in the code snippet provided here.

You have the flexibility to establish multiple layers in your class hierarchy to enhance your application's structure. For instance:

var MyBaseView = Backbone.View.extend({
  // common functionalities across all views in your app
});

var ProfileSummary = MyBaseView.extend({
  // functionalities specific to the profile summary view
});

var ProfileSummaryEditor = ProfileSummary.extend({
  // enables editing for the profile summary
});

I hope this clarifies things for you. Feel free to reach out if I've misunderstood your query.

Answer 4

Implementing prototypal inheritance can be advantageous when utilizing an Object Oriented approach with inheritance to tackle complex problems.

For instance, frameworks like Backbone.js offer foundational classes such as Model, Collection, and View. By extending these base classes in your application, you can customize them for specific functionalities. Consider the following example:

var ProfileSummary = Backbone.View.extend({
  render: function () {
    this.$el.html("Profile summary view");
  }
});

In this case, ProfileSummary inherits all methods and features of Backbone.View, allowing you to adjust the behavior of the render function.

Utilizing the extend method in Backbone facilitates easy extension of classes through prototypal inheritance. Find more information on this in the code snippet provided here.

You have the flexibility to establish multiple layers in your class hierarchy to enhance your application's structure. For instance:

var MyBaseView = Backbone.View.extend({
  // common functionalities across all views in your app
});

var ProfileSummary = MyBaseView.extend({
  // functionalities specific to the profile summary view
});

var ProfileSummaryEditor = ProfileSummary.extend({
  // enables editing for the profile summary
});

I hope this clarifies things for you. Feel free to reach out if I've misunderstood your query.

Can you provide a tangible instance where prototypal inheritance is used in everyday life?

Answer №1

Answer №2

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