Hidden Features of JavaScript? [closed]

Answer 1

Prototypal inheritance (popularized by Douglas Crockford) completely revolutionizes the way you think about loads of things in Javascript.

Object.beget = (function(Function){
    return function(Object){
        Function.prototype = Object;
        return new Function;
    }
})(function(){});

It's a killer! Pity how almost no one uses it.

It allows you to "beget" new instances of any object, extend them, while maintaining a (live) prototypical inheritance link to their other properties. Example:

var A = {
  foo : 'greetings'
};  
var B = Object.beget(A);

alert(B.foo);     // 'greetings'

// changes and additionns to A are reflected in B
A.foo = 'hello';
alert(B.foo);     // 'hello'

A.bar = 'world';
alert(B.bar);     // 'world'


// ...but not the other way around
B.foo = 'wazzap';
alert(A.foo);     // 'hello'

B.bar = 'universe';
alert(A.bar);     // 'world'