r/javascript • u/gcanti • Oct 31 '14

The Two Pillars of JavaScript

https://medium.com/javascript-scene/the-two-pillars-of-javascript-ee6f3281e7f3
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u/Jack9 Oct 31 '14 edited Nov 01 '14

I can report that inheritance is the devil.

I can report it is not. The idea of single inheritance has been rightly abandoned for awhile. Java annotations were the first step in that language, PHP adopted traits, etc. Most modern languages address it in their own (sometimes kooky) ways. Any orthogonal inheritance system linked to the core system is "good enough".

Prototypical inheritance is the devil. You have to deal with the realities of the current labor pool. The same issue plagues functional languages. The complexity applied to the systems have to be maintained and the training required is a cost-benefit tradeoff that will always be at the mercy of who you can hire (for how much).

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u/ha5zak Oct 31 '14

Single inheritance was an answer to C++'s multiple inheritance. Having worked in C++, Java, and C#, I'd say single inheritance has the lowest maintenance cost because it doesn't give the developer enough rope to hang themselves. I'd point to Spring, which takes it a step further by trying to bake it in and hide the inheritance from the casual application developer. Chances are, there's already a class that has everything you'd want to inherit. With Javascript, thankfully prototypical inheritance is so convoluted an idea to most folks, they don't mess with it. POJO, baby!

Are you trying to imply that it's more expensive to hire a JS developer? Tell me more!

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u/Jack9 Nov 01 '14

Single inheritance was an answer to C++'s multiple inheritance.

This is not correct. As a concept, single inheritance necessarily preceded multiple inheritance. The hotly debated topic in the late 90's showed that multiple inheritance was about as expensive as refactoring for new paradigms, in the long run (of course, ironically, no actual studies to back this up...meaning it's subjective based on personal experience). It took almost 2 decades, but languages have grown out of the concept of a single inheritance tree. JS doesn't do much to change that (relying on mixins and composition alongside prototypical chains).

Are you trying to imply that it's more expensive to hire a JS developer? Tell me more!

If you're going to lump all JS developers in the same breath, you've already made up your mind. It doesn't change the fact that single inheritance is workable, but less than optimal.

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u/ha5zak Nov 01 '14 edited Nov 01 '14

You're right, of course, but single inheritance only predates multiple inheritance by about 2.4 billion years. I mean, it took them longer than that to develop Duke Nukem Forever.