Subj : Re: finilize & construct: call disbalance
To   : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng
From : anton muhin
Date : Thu Jul 15 2004 03:01 pm

Brendan Eich wrote:
> The prototype is just the first, and "representative" object of the 
> class.  All instances after it delegate to it.  Why should it not be of 
> the same class as those instances?  In fact if it is to have shared 
> properties such as methods defined once as its properties, then it may 
> need class-specific [[Get]] and [[Put]] behavior (SpiderMonkey's 
> JSClass.getProperty, JSClass.setProperty).
> 
> It makes less sense to insist that the prototype be a plain Object.
> 
>> Another reason, but technical one, is that I don't want to check if my 
>> object has private data. It's not laziness, but rather I try to make 
>> things as clean as possible.
> 
> Then give the prototype private data too, by calling your constructor on 
> it after the return from JS_InitClass.

Ok, maybe I should be more specific. I want to extend js with one class 
--- RGB color plus a couple of utilities (it's actually VRML SFColor 
class). Each instance has color values  and, therefore, all the methods 
can operate on it. However, I don't see any reasonable values for colors 
that prototype object should have. Of course, I can default to something 
like .0, .0, .0.

By now I ended with checking of private data presence, but I still don't 
think that it's an ideal solution.

Any comments and suggestions are highly appreciated. Maybe I'm just too 
OOPish for prototype-based languages.

Anyway, thank you very much for your time and experience you shared!

with the best regards,
anton.

.