Hi,

The section on dynamic prototyping with inheritance (pages 114 and 115) emphatically states that the hybrid constructor/prototype inheritance paradigm does not work with dynamic prototyping.

That's not true - I've come up with a technique which allows one to implement dynamic prototyping with inheritance.

The example given on page 115 can be rewritten as:

    function Triangle(iBase, iHeight) {
        Polygon.call(this, 3);
        this.base = iBase;
        this.height = iHeight;

        if (typeof Triangle._initialized == 'undefined') {
            delete this;
            Triangle.prototype = new Polygon;
            Triangle.prototype.getArea = function () {
                return 0.5 * this.base * this.height;
            };
            Triangle._initialized = true;
            var newTriangle = new Triangle(iBase, iHeight);
            return newTriangle;
        }
    }

This encapsulates all the code in the constructor as required (the lines I've added to the code in the book are highlighted in red).

This section of the text is therefore quite misleading and maybe Nicholas should think about reworking it for the next edition.

Best Regards,

Sajid

That's an interesting approach, however, it is not the equivalent of the hybrid constructor/prototype inheritance approach. First, doesn't actually do anything. The delete operator is used only to delete properties on an object, not the object itself. Second, you are creating a second object the first time the constructor is called, which forces the developer to effectively call the constructor twice instead of once.

Thanks for the feedback, but I don't believe you've disproved my statement.


Nicholas C. Zakas
Author, Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (ISBN 0764579088)
http://www.nczonline.net/

Oops ! I see now that the garbage collector would destroy the first object automatically, so the delete statement wouldn't be required even if it actually destroyed the object (which it doesn't, as you point out).

However, I don't understand why calling the constructor twice is a problem ?

Sajid