Re:Deep JavaScript
by k__ on Thursday June 10, 2021 @11:07AM
(#27461593)
You can think of a prototype as a fallback for your object.
If something doesn't exist on your object, JS will check if it has a prototype and look there transparently.
Now, if you got a prototype chain, JS will move through it in the hope to find what you wanted to access on the original object.
try to access obj.a
not there?
try to access obj.prototype.a
not there?
try to access obj.prototype.prototype.a
etc.
The nice thing is "this" will usually (if you call a function as method and not pass a reference of it around for callbacks and such) refer to the object and not the prototype. Also, writes happen on the object.
If something doesn't exist on your object, JS will check if it has a prototype and look there transparently.
Now, if you got a prototype chain, JS will move through it in the hope to find what you wanted to access on the original object.
try to access obj.a
not there?
try to access obj.prototype.a
not there?
try to access obj.prototype.prototype.a
etc.
The nice thing is "this" will usually (if you call a function as method and not pass a reference of it around for callbacks and such) refer to the object and not the prototype. Also, writes happen on the object.