Kyle Simpson's OLOO Pattern vs Prototype Design Pattern

Question

Does Kyle Simpson\'s \"OLOO (Objects Linking to Other Objects) Pattern\" differ in any way from the the Prototype design pattern? Other than coining it by something that spe

Answer 1

@Marcus, just like you, I have been keen on OLOO and also dislike the asymmetry as described in your first point. I've been playing with an abstraction to bring the symmetry back. You could create a link() function that is used in place of Object.create(). When used, your code could look something like this...

var Point = {
    init  : function(x,y) {
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
    }
};


var Point3D = link(Point, {
    init: function(x,y,z) {
        Point.init.call(this, x, y);
        this.z = z;
    }
});

Remember that Object.create() has a second parameter that can be passed in. Here is the link function that leverages the second parameter. It also allows a little bit of custom configuration...

function link(delegate, props, propsConfig) {
  props = props || {};
  propsConfig = propsConfig || {};

  var obj = {};
  Object.keys(props).forEach(function (key) {
    obj[key] = {
      value: props[key],
      enumerable: propsConfig.isEnumerable || true,
      writable: propsConfig.isWritable || true,
      configurable: propsConfig.isConfigurable || true
    };
  });

  return Object.create(delegate, obj);
}

Of course, I think @Kyle would not endorse shadowing the init() function in the Point3D object. ;-)