Principles of Object-Oriented Programming in JavaScript

If you’re coming from a more traditional object-oriented language such as C++ or Java, JavaScript might seem like it’s not object-oriented at all. After all, JavaScript has no concept of classes, and you don’t even need to define any objects in order to write code. JavaScript can look just as much like C as it can an object-oriented language depending on how you decide to write it. But don’t be fooled, JavaScript is an incredibly powerful and expressive object-oriented language that puts many design decisions in the hands of you, the developer.

This book is an exploration of the object-oriented nature of JavaScript. It is not specific to a particular JavaScript environment, so it’s equally useful for web developers and Node.js developers. The book includes information about ECMAScript 5 and its new capabilities that have changed how you can work with objects in JavaScript.

What you’ll learn:

• The differences between primitive and reference values
• What makes JavaScript functions so unique
• The various ways of creating an object
• The difference between data properties and accessor properties using ECMAScript 5
• How to define your own constructors
• How to work with and understand prototypes
• Various inheritance patterns for types and objects
• How to create private and privileged object members
• How to prevent modification of objects using ECMAScript 5 functionality

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Primitive and Reference Types
Chapter 2. Functions
Chapter 3. Understanding Objects
Chapter 4. Contructors and Prototypes
Chapter 5. Inheritance
Chapter 6. Object Patterns