polotek/ctor

A simple and familiar prototypal system

ctor

A simple and familiar prototypal system.

var Ctor = require('ctor');

var Person = Ctor.extend({
  constructor: function Person(name, nickname) {
    this.name = name;
    this.nickname = nickname;
  }
  , sayHello: function() {
    return "Hey, I'm " + this.name + '. But you can call me ' + this.nickname; 
  }
});

var p = Person.create('Marco', 'polotek');

console.log(p.sayHello()); // Hey, I'm Marco. But you can call me polotek

var Employee = Person.extend({
  constructor: function Employee(name, nickname, job) {
    // The person constructor has already been called
    this.job = job;
  }
  , sayHello: function() {
    // No concept of "super". If you want a super call, be explicit
    return "Hello, my name is " + this.name + '. I work at ' + this.job;
  }
});

var e = Employee.create('Marco', 'polotek', 'Acme Novelties');

console.log(e.sayHello()); // 'Hello, my name is Marco. I work at Acme Novelties'

// (p instanceof Person) === true
// p.sayHello === Person.prototype.sayHello
// (e instanceof Employee) === true
// (e instanceof Person) === true
// (e.__proto__ instanceof Person) === true

ctor is a really simple prototypal object system that codefies a few simple constructs that I like.

• Don't use new. Think of create as your object factory. This follows nicely from Object.create.
• There is a constructor for initializing your objects. create calls this on every object.
• Instead of "inheritance", there is simple extension. extend creates a new object factory with the following behavior
  • Proper prototype chain is set up.
  • The extended parent constructor will always be called implicitly. Initialization integrity is preserved.
  • No other fanciness. No "super".

ctor's Issues

Only works with Node, not in the browser

I'll probably be able to send a PR, but filing a ticket for now. What I like about this is for one it's familiar (obviously), but it's super tiny. I was a little sad to see it requires Node, so it'd be cool to have this work on the browser and be able to simply plop it in and code.