Exploring the Evolution of Prototypal Inheritance in JavaScript

A Journey Through the History and Advancements of Prototypal Inheritance in JavaScript

Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash

Prototypal inheritance is a core concept in JavaScript, shaping the language’s object-oriented paradigm over the years.

In this guide, we’ll take a journey through the evolution of prototypal inheritance in JavaScript, tracing its origins, exploring its advancements, and providing up-to-date code examples to illustrate its concepts.

The Origins of Prototypal Inheritance

In the early days of JavaScript, prototypal inheritance was the primary mechanism for object-oriented programming. Objects were linked to other objects through prototypes, allowing for the inheritance of properties and methods.

const animal = {
  type: 'Animal',
  sound: function() {
    console.log('Make a sound');
  }
};

const dog = Object.create(animal);
dog.type = 'Dog';
dog.sound(); // Output: Make a sound

Here, dog inherits the type property and sound() method from the animal object through prototypal inheritance.

The Introduction of Constructor Functions