Comments on: JavaScript Can Learn: Now Teach It Tricks!

By: Javascript Ninja

Javascript Ninja — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 06:53:54 +0000

One mis-feature that is often used is to extend Object.prototype or one of the other built in prototypes.

This technique is called monkey patching(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_patch) and breaks encapsulation. While used by widely spread frameworks such as Prototype, there is still no good reason for cluttering built-in types with additional non-standard functionality.

The only good reason for extending a built-in prototype is to backport the features of newer JavaScript engines; for example, Array.forEach.

Further, the native prototypes should never be extended unless it is for the sake of compatibility with newer JavaScript features.

By: William

William — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:10:19 +0000

Great tricks!

I am new to javascript and this really opened my mind. Thanks

By: Friday FUEL Fix (11/06/09) | Fuel Your Creativity

Friday FUEL Fix (11/06/09) | Fuel Your Creativity — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:58:50 +0000

[...] Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Coding JavaScript Can Learn: Now Teach It Tricks! [...]

By: Jerod Santo

Jerod Santo — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:18:08 +0000

Great read, Doug. I had never had the prototype object explained to me before. Thanks!

I know what you mean when you say that switching languages between client & server can be tough sometimes. It is apparent to me that JavaScript wins on the client-side (and will win even bigger in the near future), so I’m excited about some of the server-side JavaScript projects like Jack.

Perhaps server-side JavaScript would be an interesting topic for a future post.

Cheers!