Understanding Crockford's Object.create shim

Question

I've been reading up on the Crockford shim for preventing the overwriting of prototypes, and understand that it's not the end-all/be-all solution at times. I also understand that ES5 Shim may be a viable alternative to this. I also read this post which provides a more robust, secure alternative.

Still, I'd like to know what his Object.create shim is "saying" and then "doing." Can someone please tell me if my explanation comments are right?

if (typeof Object.create === 'undefined') { 
//If the browser doesn't support Object.create

  Object.create = function (o) {
  //Object.create equals an anonymous function that accepts one parameter, 'o'.

    function F() {};
    //Create a new function called 'F' which is just an empty object.

    F.prototype = o;
    //the prototype of the 'F' function should point to the
    //parameter of the anonymous function.

    return new F();
    //create a new constructor function based off of the 'F' function.
  };
}

//Then, based off of the 'Lost' example in the Crockford book...

var another_stooge = Object.create(stooge);

//'another_stooge' prototypes off of 'stooge' using new school Object.create.
//But if the browser doesn't support Object.create,
//'another_stooge' prototypes off of 'stooge' using the old school method.

This way, the prototype of the 'stooge' object can't be overwritten when we augment stuff to 'another_stooge'. No need to reset the 'stooge' prototype using 'constructor'.

Thanks in advance,

-k

Answer 1

if (typeof Object.create !== 'function') {
    Object.create = function (o) {
        function F() {}
        F.prototype = o;
        return new F();
    };
}
var oldObject={prop:'Property_one' }; // An object
var newObject = Object.create(oldObject); // Another object

In the above example we've created a new object newObject using create method which is a member function of Object object that we've added in the Object object earlier in our (Crockford's) example. So basically what it does is that, the create method declares a function F, an empty object every function is a first class object in javascript and then we've inherited the prototype of o (in that case o is also an object oldObject passed as the parameter of create method) and finally we've returned the new object (an instance of F) using return new F(); to the variable newObject, so now newObject is an object that inherited the oldObject. Now if you write console.log(newObject.prop); then it'll output Property_one because our newObject object has inherited the oldObject and that's why we've got the value of prop as Property_one. this is known as prototypical inheritance.

You must pass an object as the parameter of create method