JavaScript instance functions versus prototype functions [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Use of 'prototype' vs. 'this' in Javascript?

My understanding of the different kinds of JavaScript functions are as follows:

function MyObj() {     this.propOne = true;     this.publicInstanceFunc = function() {         if (propOne)             return 'public instance function';     }     function privateFunc() {         return 'private function only visible inside this constructor';     } }  MyObj.prototype.protoFunc = function() {     if (this.propOne)         return 'prototype function shared amongst all instances of MyObj'; } 

1. Are these correct?
2. In what cases should one put functions on the prototype (e.g. protoFunc) vs. in the constructor (e.g. publicInstanceFunc)?
3. Is using this the correct way to access properties inside prototype functions?

Answer 1

You can actually add another level of privilege via wrapping the whole thing in a self-executing function:

var MyObj = (function() { // scoping     var privateSharedVar = 'foo';      function privateSharedFunction() {         // has access to privateSharedVar         // may also access publicSharedVar via explicit MyObj.prototype         // can't be called via this     }      function MyObj() { // constructor         var privateInstanceVar = 'bar';         this.publicInstanceVar = 'baz';          function privateInstanceFunction() {             // has access to all vars             // can't be called via this         };          this.publicInstanceMethod = function() {             // has access to all vars             // also known as a privileged method         };     }      MyObj.prototype.publicSharedVar = 'quux';      MyObj.prototype.publicSharedMethod = function() {         // has access to shared and public vars         // canonical way for method creation:         // try to use this as much as possible     };      return MyObj; })(); 

Only 'public' properties can be accessed from outside via this.

For performance reasons, you should avoid what I called 'instance' methods: For each of these, a new function object must be created for each MyObject instance, whereas there's only a single function object per 'shared' method.