Is there any difference between constructor function and prototype object when using inheritance?

Question

Consider the following to JavaScript snippets:

function foo() {
  this.bar = function() { };
}

// or... (if we used an empty constructor function)

foo.prot         


        

Answer 1

To add onto the existing answers:

Making a prototype function would allow changes to it to be inherited. i.e if you write

function foo(){}
foo.prototype.bar = function(){return 1};
function baz(){}
baz.prototype = new foo();
new baz().bar(); //returns 1
foo.prototype.bar = function(){return 2};
new baz().bar(); //returns 2

However, putting it in the constructor would let other objects inheriting from it also "have" that function, but the function is not inherited.

function foo(){this.bar = function(){return 1};}
function baz(){}
baz.prototype = new foo();
new baz().bar(); //returns 1
foo.prototype.bar = function(){return 2};
new baz().bar(); //returns 1