Splitting things up about spine HOT 7 CLOSED

I soniciq, I did that with Super.js before - unfortunately it had it's issues - you could never be sure what was available when creating modules etc. It's the same argument for having a core library with Ruby, for example, or always including models with Rails apps.

What we could start doing though, is use sprockets. Although there would be a bundled file containing everything, you could always use the individual source files if you just wanted say, class support. What do you think?

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Sprockets sounds like the way forward... I am currently using a simplified version of your Class object, you will see that I am using 'klass' and 'superclass' properties in place of your 'parent' property as I commonly find myself needing to use 'parent' when dealing with tree structures etc. Am I on the right lines with those names? My head hurts when it comes to prototypal inheritance but thanks to the simplicity of your code I think I've finally grasped it...

var Class = {
  prototype: { initializer: function() {} },

  subclass: function(include, extend){
    var object = Object.create(this);
    object.superclass = this;
    object.prototype = Object.create(this.prototype);

    if (include) { object.include(include); }
    if (extend) { object.extend(extend); }

    return object;
  },

  init: function(){
    var initance = Object.create(this.prototype);
    initance.klass = this;
    initance.initializer.apply(initance, arguments);
    return initance;
  },

  include: function(obj){
    for (var key in obj) { this.prototype[key] = obj[key]; }
    return this;
  },

  extend: function(obj){
    for (var key in obj) { this[key] = obj[key]; }
    return this;
  }
};

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Sorry for the double comment but is there any way to adapt the Class object to allow for instantiating with the 'new' keyword? I prefer the prototypal inheritance but have a lot of code that instantiates with 'new' using John Resig's Simple Inheritance. I basically want to replace my class implementation but not have to rewrite legacy code.

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Yes, I was not sure about the naming scheme either, specially as a instances
parent is the class, and a classes parent is the class it inherits from -
probably a bit confusing. The real parent is proto. Anyways...

As to your question, unfortunately it's not possible. You can only use the
'new' keyword with constructor functions, and unfortunately functions don't
allow you to proper inheritance - static properties have to be copied. It's
for this reason that Prototype's class implementation does't inherit static
(i.e. class) properties.

On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 3:38 PM, soniciq <
[email protected]>wrote:

Sorry for the double comment but is there any way to adapt the Class object
to allow for instantiating with the 'new' keyword? I prefer the prototypal
inheritance but have a lot of code that instantiates with 'new' using John
Resig's Simple Inheritance. I basically want to replace my class
implementation but not have to rewrite legacy code.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/maccman/spine/issues/11#comment_1073433

Alex MacCaw

(415) 513-0975
@maccman

http://alexmaccaw.co.uk | http://www.leadthinking.com | http://socialmod.com

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So I suppose 'parent/klass/superclass' aren't needed as proto always returns the parent?

Thanks for the clarification on the 'new' keyword, that makes sense... I've been writing javascript for 10 years and never really understood prototypal inheritance properly. It seems 'new' just adds complexity that's not really needed.

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I've just noticed that 'instanceof' doesn't work with this approach... am I missing something?

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You may find this useful... I cant' get instanceof to work as it only works with instances created with a constructor but if you add the following to the Class.prototype, you get a kindOf method that works like Ruby's is_a/kind_of:

prototype: { 
  initialize: function() {},

  kindOf: function(klass) {
    var match = this.klass;          
    while (match && match !== klass) { match = match.superclass; }
    return match === klass;
  }
}

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