Mastering JavaScript Design Patterns

Prototype

The final creational pattern in this chapter is the Prototype pattern. Perhaps this name sounds familiar. It certainly should: it is the mechanism through which JavaScript inheritance is supported.

We looked at prototypes for inheritance but the applicability of prototypes need not be limited to inheritance. Copying existing objects can be a very useful pattern. There are numerous cases when being able to duplicate a constructed object is handy. For instance, maintaining a history of the state of an object is easily done by saving previous instances created by leveraging some sort of cloning.

Implementation

In Westeros, we find that members of a family are frequently very similar: as the adage goes, "like father, like son." As each generation ...