[removed] The Good Parts - How to not use `new` at all

Question

Crockford\'s book, JavaScript: The Good Parts, says (on page 114) that constructor functions should always be given names with an initial capital letter (i

Answer 1

You can avoid "new" by returning an anonymous object and using a closure in your constructor. This also help you hide private data.

Consider:

function SomeCounter(start) {

    var counter = start;

    return {
        getCounter : function() {
            return counter;
        },

        increaseCounter : function() {
            counter++;
        }

    };
}

Now to use this, all you need to do is

var myCounter = SomeCounter(5);
myCounter.increaseCounter();
console.log(myCounter.getCounter()); //should log 6

The beauty of this is that you do not need to remember to use "new", but if you do it won't hurt you.

var myCounter = new SomeCounter(5); //still works