Hello Inheritance
It is prudent that we remember that our world is not defined. No matter how much science we throw at it, no matter how much the book of definitions grows, there will always be unknown. Our code will never be able to match the vastness of our comprehension and definitions. Clearly there is never a way to get around the fact that computers live in a supremely deterministic world. For this reason, every program should be known as art.
The very first definition of art when googling [Definition of Art]:
"the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."
We should remember that we actually make a living off of the fact that programmers take something defined and absolute to create something amorphous and functional. Programmers also take requirements and turn them into something displayed on a screen. This alone is remarkable. In the context of art, we are untypical, yet we try to produce works to be appreciated by their physical or tangible power, rather than their beauty or emotional power. (Or maybe you do?)
The Chains of Determinism and Convention over Configuration
Given the example, I show you inheritance that actually makes sense. When you inherit a simple interface in C#, things become more generic and happy. Do not confuse this for complicated inheritance chains that convolute your code. Applying an interface to multiple objects makes your code flow better and work with different definitions faster. These specific kinds of contracts are exactly what you need.
It also bodes us well to remember that javascript ascends beyond this need to define. It takes all the deterministic work out of your code. What you are stuck with are the conventions you use to define your work, and the configurations you provide to your client.
Why not instead of classes, think of your javascript code like you would a composer? The composer cares not about determinism. In fact, some composers would say their work leads them to the solution. The composer applies musical conventions and not configurations to define their pieces. In fact, most configurations are left up to the conductor who interprets the pieces created by the composer.
Even if you can define the notes used to compose a piece, it makes sense that those notes would mean something so much more!
What does this mean for you?
You are not a composer, (or maybe you are,) and thus, should act accordingly. Instead of relying on supreme indeterminism, rely on some convention in your code. Convention will make your code faster and smaller. Of course, definitely do type checking, but be willing to be flexible where you do it. Wherever your API interfaces with a developer, be flexible enough to call
Object.prototype.toString.call(object) and really see what is going on. You may be accepting the input of another library (hopefully with the right conventions) but in complete honesty, you never know what you are going to get.So throw in the towel, right?
HECK NO.
You should instead, play into javascript like you mean it.
Have the courage to do something like this:
Yeah. I totally went there.
The only adjustment you need to work with javascript is your attitude towards it. Javascript cannot be deterministic. So embrace it's functions and super generic objects, and enjoy your smaller (and somehow faster) code base.
You won't regret it.
Lastly, here is a sample of the stuff you can do with a very small (2kb minified) library that I wrote by hand.
This is the way object coding should be (minus the pyramid syntax that plagues the gist's version of callback hell.)
You define repeatable closures and mixin objects. Suddenly, you have a repeatable way to generate objects. Just don't forget that those pieces can be called directly like this:
Want to actually use it in your project? The command is simple (for node anyway:)
In functional health,
~function Josh(){}()
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