JavaScript. The core.
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This note is an overview and summary of the “ECMA-262-3 in detail” series. Every section contains references to the appropriate matching chapters so you can read them to get a deeper understanding.
Intended audience: experienced programmers, professionals.
We start out by considering the concept of an object, which is fundamental to ECMAScript.
An object
ECMAScript, being a highly-abstracted object-oriented language, deals with objects. There are also primitives, but they, when needed, are also converted to objects.
An object is a collection of properties and has a single prototype object. The prototype may be either an object or the null value.
Let’s take a basic example of an object. A prototype of an object is referenced by the internal [[Prototype]] property. However, in figures we will use __<internal-property>__ underscore notation instead of the double brackets, particularly for the prototype object: __proto__.
For the code:
var foo = {
x: 10,
y: 20
};
we have the structure with two explicit own properties and one implicit __proto__ property, which is the reference to the prototype of foo:
Figure 1. A basic object with a prototype.
What for these prototypes are needed? Let’s consider a prototype chain concept to answer this question.
A prototype chain
Prototype objects are also just simple objects and may have their own prototypes. If a prototype has a non-null reference to its prototype, and so on, this is called the prototype chain.
A prototype chain is a finite chain of objects which is used to implement inheritance and shared properties.
Consider the case when we have two objects which differ only in some small part and all the other part is the same for both objects. Obviously, for a good designed system, we would like to reuse that similar functionality/code without repeating it in every single object. In class-based systems, this code reuse stylistics is called the class-based inheritance — you put similar functionality into the class A, and provide classes B and C which inherit from A and have their own small additional changes.
ECMAScript has no concept of a class. However, a code reuse stylistics does not differ much (though, in some aspects it’s even more flexible than class-based) and achieved via the prototype chain. This kind of inheritance is called a delegation based inheritance (or, closer to ECMAScript, a prototype based inheritance).
Similarly like in the example with classes A, B and C, in ECMAScript you create objects: a, b, and c. Thus, object a stores this common part of both b and c objects. And b and c store just their own additional properties or methods.
var a = {
x: 10,
calculate: function (z) {
return this.x + this.y + z;
}
};
var b = {
y: 20,
__proto__: a
};
var c = {
y: 30,
__proto__: a
};
// call the inherited method
b.calculate(30); // 60
c.calculate(40); // 80
Easy enough, isn’t it? We see that b and c have access to the calculate method which is defined in a object. And this is achieved exactly via this prototype chain.
The rule is simple: if a property or a method is not found in the object itself (i.e. the object has no such an own property), then there is an attempt to find this property/method in the prototype chain. If the property is not found in the prototype, then a prototype of the prototype is considered, and so on, i.e. the whole prototype chain (absolutely the same is made in class-based inheritance, when resolving an inherited method — there we go through the class chain). The first found property/method with the same name is used. Thus, a found property is called inherited property. If the property is not found after the whole prototype chain lookup, then undefined value is returned.
Notice, that this value in using an inherited method is set to the original object, but not to the (prototype) object in which the method is found. I.e. in the example above this.y is taken from b and c, but not from a. However, this.x is taken from a, and again via the prototype chain mechanism.
If a prototype is not specified for an object explicitly, then the default value for __proto__ is taken — Object.prototype. Object Object.prototype itself also has a __proto__, which is the final link of a chain and is set to null.
The next figure shows the inheritance hierarchy of our a, b and c objects:
Figure 2. A prototype chain.
Object.create function:
var b = Object.create(a, {y: {value: 20}});
var c = Object.create(a, {y: {value: 30}});
You can get more info on new ES5 APIs in the appropriate chapter.
ES6 though standardizes the __proto__, and it can be used at initialization of objects.
Often it is needed to have objects with the same or similar state structure (i.e. the same set of properties), and with different state values. In this case we may use a constructor function which produces objects by specified pattern.
Constructor
Besides creation of objects by specified pattern, a constructor function does another useful thing — it automatically sets a prototype object for newly created objects. This prototype object is stored in the ConstructorFunction.prototype property.
E.g., we may rewrite previous example with b and c objects using a constructor function. Thus, the role of the object a (a prototype) Foo.prototype plays:
// a constructor function
function Foo(y) {
// which may create objects
// by specified pattern: they have after
// creation own "y" property
this.y = y;
}
// also "Foo.prototype" stores reference
// to the prototype of newly created objects,
// so we may use it to define shared/inherited
// properties or methods, so the same as in
// previous example we have:
// inherited property "x"
Foo.prototype.x = 10;
// and inherited method "calculate"
Foo.prototype.calculate = function (z) {
return this.x + this.y + z;
};
// now create our "b" and "c"
// objects using "pattern" Foo
var b = new Foo(20);
var c = new Foo(30);
// call the inherited method
b.calculate(30); // 60
c.calculate(40); // 80
// let's show that we reference
// properties we expect
console.log(
b.__proto__ === Foo.prototype, // true
c.__proto__ === Foo.prototype, // true
// also "Foo.prototype" automatically creates
// a special property "constructor", which is a
// reference to the constructor function itself;
// instances "b" and "c" may found it via
// delegation and use to check their constructor
b.constructor === Foo, // true
c.constructor === Foo, // true
Foo.prototype.constructor === Foo, // true
b.calculate === b.__proto__.calculate, // true
b.__proto__.calculate === Foo.prototype.calculate // true
);
This code may be presented as the following relationship:
Figure 3. A constructor and objects relationship.
This figure again shows that every object has a prototype. Constructor function Foo also has its own __proto__ which is Function.prototype, and which in turn also references via its __proto__ property again to the Object.prototype. Thus, repeat, Foo.prototype is just an explicit property of Foo which refers to the prototype of b and c objects.
Formally, if to consider a concept of a classification (and we’ve exactly just now classified the new separated thing — Foo), a combination of the constructor function and the prototype object may be called as a “class”. Actually, e.g. Python’s first-class dynamic classes have absolutely the same implementation of properties/methods resolution. From this viewpoint, classes of Python are just a syntactic sugar for delegation based inheritance used in ECMAScript.
// ES6
class Foo {
constructor(name) {
this._name = name;
}
getName() {
return this._name;
}
}
class Bar extends Foo {
getName() {
return super.getName() + ' Doe';
}
}
var bar = new Bar('John');
console.log(bar.getName()); // John Doe
The complete and detailed explanation of this topic may be found in the Chapter 7 of ES3 series. There are two parts: Chapter 7.1. OOP. The general theory, where you will find description of various OOP paradigms and stylistics and also their comparison with ECMAScript, and Chapter 7.2. OOP. ECMAScript implementation, devoted exactly to OOP in ECMAScript.
Now, when we know basic object aspects, let’s see on how the runtime program execution is implemented in ECMAScript. This is what is called an execution context stack, every element of which is abstractly may be represented as also an object. Yes, ECMAScript almost everywhere operates with concept of an object 😉
Execution context stack
There are three types of ECMAScript code: global code, function code and eval code. Every code is evaluated in its execution context. There is only one global context and may be many instances of function and eval execution contexts. Every call of a function, enters the function execution context and evaluates the function code type. Every call of eval function, enters the eval execution context and evaluates its code.
Notice, that one function may generate infinite set of contexts, because every call to a function (even if the function calls itself recursively) produces a new context with a new context state:
function foo(bar) {}
// call the same function,
// generate three different
// contexts in each call, with
// different context state (e.g. value
// of the "bar" argument)
foo(10);
foo(20);
foo(30);
An execution context may activate another context, e.g. a function calls another function (or the global context calls a global function), and so on. Logically, this is implemented as a stack, which is called the execution context stack.
A context which activates another context is called a caller. A context is being activated is called a callee. A callee at the same time may be a caller of some other callee (e.g. a function called from the global context, calls then some inner function).
When a caller activates (calls) a callee, the caller suspends its execution and passes the control flow to the callee. The callee is pushed onto the the stack and is becoming a running (active) execution context. After the callee’s context ends, it returns control to the caller, and the evaluation of the caller’s context proceeds (it may activate then other contexts) till the its end, and so on. A callee may simply return or exit with an exception. A thrown but not caught exception may exit (pop from the stack) one or more contexts.
I.e. all the ECMAScript program runtime is presented as the execution context (EC) stack, where top of this stack is an active context:
Figure 4. An execution context stack.
When program begins it enters the global execution context, which is the bottom and the first element of the stack. Then the global code provides some initialization, creates needed objects and functions. During the execution of the global context, its code may activate some other (already created) function, which will enter their execution contexts, pushing new elements onto the stack, and so on. After the initialization is done, the runtime system is waiting for some event (e.g. user’s mouse click) which will activate some function and which will enter a new execution context.
In the next figure, having some function context as EC1 and the global context as Global EC, we have the following stack modification on entering and exiting EC1 from the global context:
Figure 5. An execution context stack changes.
This is exactly how the runtime system of ECMAScript manages the execution of a code.
More information on execution context in ECMAScript may be found in the appropriate Chapter 1. Execution context.
As we said, every execution context in the stack may be presented as an object. Let’s see on its structure and what kind of state (which properties) a context is needed to execute its code.
Execution context
An execution context abstractly may be represented as a simple object. Every execution context has set of properties (which we may call a context’s state) necessary to track the execution progress of its associated code. In the next figure a structure of a context is shown:
Figure 6. An execution context structure.
Besides these three needed properties (a variable object, a this value and a scope chain), an execution context may have any additional state depending on implementation.
Let’s consider these important properties of a context in detail.
Variable object
A variable object is a container of data associated with the execution context. It’s a special object that stores variables and function declarations defined in the context.
Notice, that function expressions (in contrast with function declarations) are not included into the variable object.
A variable object is an abstract concept. In different context types, physically, it’s presented using different object. For example, in the global context the variable object is the global object itself (that’s why we have an ability to refer global variables via property names of the global object).
Let’s consider the following example in the global execution context:
var foo = 10;
function bar() {} // function declaration, FD
(function baz() {}); // function expression, FE
console.log(
this.foo == foo, // true
window.bar == bar // true
);
console.log(baz); // ReferenceError, "baz" is not defined
Then the global context’s variable object (VO) will have the following properties:
Figure 7. The global variable object.
See again, that function baz being a function expression is not included into the variable object. That’s why we have a ReferenceError when trying to access it outside the function itself.
Notice, that in contrast with other languages (e.g. C/C++) in ECMAScript only functions create a new scope. Variables and inner functions defined within a scope of a function are not visible directly outside and do not pollute the global variable object.
Using eval we also enter a new (eval’s) execution context. However, eval uses either global’s variable object, or a variable object of the caller (e.g. a function from which eval is called).
And what about functions and their variable objects? In a function context, a variable object is presented as an activation object.
Activation object
When a function is activated (called) by the caller, a special object, called an activation object is created. It’s filled with formal parameters and the special arguments object (which is a map of formal parameters but with index-properties). The activation object then is used as a variable object of the function context.
I.e. a function’s variable object is the same simple variable object, but besides variables and function declarations, it also stores formal parameters and arguments object and called the activation object.
Considering the following example:
function foo(x, y) {
var z = 30;
function bar() {} // FD
(function baz() {}); // FE
}
foo(10, 20);
we have the next activation object (AO) of the foo function context:
Figure 8. An activation object.
And again the function expression baz is not included into the variable/activate object.
The complete description with all subtle cases (such as “hoisting” of variables and function declarations) of the topic may be found in the same name Chapter 2. Variable object.
Notice, in ES5 the concepts of variable object, and activation object are combined into the lexical environments model, which detailed description can be found in the appropriate chapter.
And we are moving forward to the next section. As is known, in ECMAScript we may use inner functions and in these inner functions we may refer to variables of parent functions or variables of the global context. As we named a variable object as a scope object of the context, similarly to the discussed above prototype chain, there is so-called a scope chain.
Scope chain
A scope chain is a list of objects that are searched for identifiers appear in the code of the context.
The rule is again simple and similar to a prototype chain: if a variable is not found in the own scope (in the own variable/activation object), its lookup proceeds in the parent’s variable object, and so on.
Regarding contexts, identifiers are: names of variables, function declarations, formal parameters, etc. When a function refers in its code the identifier which is not a local variable (or a local function or a formal parameter), such variable is called a free variable. And to search these free variables exactly a scope chain is used.
In general case, a scope chain is a list of all those parent variable objects, plus (in the front of scope chain) the function’s own variable/activation object. However, the scope chain may contain also any other object, e.g. objects dynamically added to the scope chain during the execution of the context — such as with-objects or special objects of catch-clauses.
When resolving (looking up) an identifier, the scope chain is searched starting from the activation object, and then (if the identifier isn’t found in the own activation object) up to the top of the scope chain — repeat, the same just like with a prototype chain.
var x = 10;
(function foo() {
var y = 20;
(function bar() {
var z = 30;
// "x" and "y" are "free variables"
// and are found in the next (after
// bar's activation object) object
// of the bar's scope chain
console.log(x + y + z);
})();
})();
We may assume the linkage of the scope chain objects via the implicit __parent__ property, which refers to the next object in the chain. This approach may be tested in a real Rhino code, and exactly this technique is used in ES5 lexical environments (there it’s named an outer link). Another representation of a scope chain may be a simple array. Using a __parent__ concept, we may represent the example above with the following figure (thus parent variable objects are saved in the [[Scope]] property of a function):
Figure 9. A scope chain.
At code execution, a scope chain may be augmented using with statement and catch clause objects. And since these objects are simple objects, they may have prototypes (and prototype chains). This fact leads to that scope chain lookup is two-dimensional: (1) first a scope chain link is considered, and then (2) on every scope chain’s link — into the depth of the link’s prototype chain (if the link of course has a prototype).
For this example:
Object.prototype.x = 10;
var w = 20;
var y = 30;
// in SpiderMonkey global object
// i.e. variable object of the global
// context inherits from "Object.prototype",
// so we may refer "not defined global
// variable x", which is found in
// the prototype chain
console.log(x); // 10
(function foo() {
// "foo" local variables
var w = 40;
var x = 100;
// "x" is found in the
// "Object.prototype", because
// {z: 50} inherits from it
with ({z: 50}) {
console.log(w, x, y , z); // 40, 10, 30, 50
}
// after "with" object is removed
// from the scope chain, "x" is
// again found in the AO of "foo" context;
// variable "w" is also local
console.log(x, w); // 100, 40
// and that's how we may refer
// shadowed global "w" variable in
// the browser host environment
console.log(window.w); // 20
})();
we have the following structure (that is, before we go to the __parent__ link, first __proto__ chain is considered):
Figure 10. A “with-augmented” scope chain.
Notice, that not in all implementations the global object inherits from the Object.prototype. The behavior described on the figure (with referencing “non-defined” variable x from the global context) may be tested e.g. in SpiderMonkey.
Until all parent variable objects exist, there is nothing special in getting parent data from the inner function — we just traverse through the scope chain resolving (searching) needed variable. However, as we mentioned above, after a context ends, all its state and it itself are destroyed. At the same time an inner function may be returned from the parent function. Moreover, this returned function may be later activated from another context. What will be with such an activation if a context of some free variable is already “gone”? In the general theory, a concept which helps to solve this issue is called a (lexical) closure, which in ECMAScript is directly related with a scope chain concept.
Closures
In ECMAScript, functions are the first-class objects. This term means that functions may be passed as arguments to other functions (in such case they are called “funargs”, short from “functional arguments”). Functions which receive “funargs” are called higher-order functions or, closer to mathematics, operators. Also functions may be returned from other functions. Functions which return other functions are called function valued functions (or functions with functional value).
There are two conceptual problems related with “funargs” and “functional values”. And these two sub-problems are generalized in one which is called a “Funarg problem” (or “A problem of a functional argument”). And exactly to solve the complete “funarg problem”, the concept of closures was invented. Let’s describe in more detail these two sub-problems (we’ll see that both of them are solved in ECMAScript using a mentioned on figures [[Scope]] property of a function).
First subtype of the “funarg problem” is an “upward funarg problem”. It appears when a function is returned “up” (to the outside) from another function and uses already mentioned above free variables. To be able access variables of the parent context even after the parent context ends, the inner function at creation moment saves in it’s [[Scope]] property parent’s scope chain. Then when the function is activated, the scope chain of its context is formed as combination of the activation object and this [[Scope]] property (actually, what we’ve just seen above on figures):
Scope chain = Activation object + [[Scope]]
Notice again the main thing — exactly at creation moment — a function saves parent’s scope chain, because exactly this saved scope chain will be used for variables lookup then in further calls of the function.
function foo() {
var x = 10;
return function bar() {
console.log(x);
};
}
// "foo" returns also a function
// and this returned function uses
// free variable "x"
var returnedFunction = foo();
// global variable "x"
var x = 20;
// execution of the returned function
returnedFunction(); // 10, but not 20
This style of scope is called the static (or lexical) scope. We see that the variable x is found in the saved [[Scope]] of returned bar function. In general theory, there is also a dynamic scope when the variable x in the example above would be resolved as 20, but not 10. However, dynamic scope is not used in ECMAScript.
The second part of the “funarg problem” is a “downward funarg problem”. In this case a parent context may exist, but may be an ambiguity with resolving an identifier. The problem is: from which scope a value of an identifier should be used — statically saved at a function’s creation or dynamically formed at execution (i.e. a scope of a caller)? To avoid this ambiguity and to form a closure, a static scope is decided to be used:
// global "x"
var x = 10;
// global function
function foo() {
console.log(x);
}
(function (funArg) {
// local "x"
var x = 20;
// there is no ambiguity,
// because we use global "x",
// which was statically saved in
// [[Scope]] of the "foo" function,
// but not the "x" of the caller's scope,
// which activates the "funArg"
funArg(); // 10, but not 20
})(foo); // pass "down" foo as a "funarg"
We may conclude that a static scope is an obligatory requirement to have closures in a language. However, some languages may provided combination of dynamic and static scopes, allowing a programmer to choose — what to closure and what do not. Since in ECMAScript only a static scope is used (i.e. we have solutions for both subtypes of the “funarg problem”), the conclusion is: ECMAScript has complete support of closures, which technically are implemented using [[Scope]] property of functions. Now we may give a correct definition of a closure:
A closure is a combination of a code block (in ECMAScript this is a function) and statically/lexically saved all parent scopes. Thus, via these saved scopes a function may easily refer free variables.
Notice, that since every (normal) function saves [[Scope]] at creation, theoretically, all functions in ECMAScript are closures.
Another important thing to note, that several functions may have the same parent scope (it’s quite a normal situation when e.g. we have two inner/global functions). In this case variables stored in the [[Scope]] property are shared between all functions having the same parent scope chain. Changes of variables made by one closure are reflected on reading these variables in another closure:
function baz() {
var x = 1;
return {
foo: function foo() { return ++x; },
bar: function bar() { return --x; }
};
}
var closures = baz();
console.log(
closures.foo(), // 2
closures.bar() // 1
);
This code may be illustrated with the following figure:
![Figure 11. A shared [[Scope]].](/wp-content/uploads/shared-scope.png "Figure 11. A shared [[Scope]].")
Figure 11. A shared [[Scope]].
Exactly with this feature confusion with creating several functions in a loop is related. Using a loop counter inside created functions, some programmers often get unexpected results when all functions have the same value of a counter inside a function. Now it should be clear why it is so — because all these functions have the same [[Scope]] where the loop counter has the last assigned value.
var data = [];
for (var k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
data[k] = function () {
alert(k);
};
}
data[0](); // 3, but not 0
data[1](); // 3, but not 1
data[2](); // 3, but not 2
There are several techniques which may solve this issue. One of the techniques is to provide an additional object in the scope chain — e.g. using additional function:
var data = [];
for (var k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
data[k] = (function (x) {
return function () {
alert(x);
};
})(k); // pass "k" value
}
// now it is correct
data[0](); // 0
data[1](); // 1
data[2](); // 2
Those who interested deeper in theory of closures and their practical application, may find additional information in the Chapter 6. Closures. And to get more information about a scope chain, take a look on the same name Chapter 4. Scope chain.
And we’re moving to the next section, considering the last property of an execution context. This is concept of a this value.
This value
A this value is a special object which is related with the execution context. Therefore, it may be named as a context object (i.e. an object in which context the execution context is activated).
Any object may be used as this value of the context. I’d like to clarify again the misconception raises sometimes in some descriptions related with execution context of ECMAScript and in particular this value. Often, a this value, incorrectly, is described as a property of the variable object. The recent such a mistake was e.g. in this book (though, the mentioned chapter of the book is quite good). Remember once again:
a this value is a property of the execution context, but not a property of the variable object.
This feature is very important, because in contrary to variables, this value never participates in identifier resolution process. I.e. when accessing this in a code, its value is taken directly from the execution context and without any scope chain lookup. The value of this is determinate only once when entering the context.
By the way, in contrast with ECMAScript, e.g. Python has its self argument of methods as a simple variable which is resolved the same and may be even changed during the execution to another value. In ECMAScript it is not possible to assign a new value to this, because, repeat, it’s not a variable and is not placed in the variable object.
In the global context, a this value is the global object itself (that means, this value here equals to variable object):
var x = 10; console.log( x, // 10 this.x, // 10 window.x // 10 );
In case of a function context, this value in every single function call may be different. Here this value is provided by the caller via the form of a call expression (i.e. the way of how a function is activated). For example, the function foo below is a callee, being called from the global context, which is a caller. Let’s see on the example, how for the same code of a function, this value in different calls (different ways of the function activation) is provided differently by the caller:
// the code of the "foo" function
// never changes, but the "this" value
// differs in every activation
function foo() {
alert(this);
}
// caller activates "foo" (callee) and
// provides "this" for the callee
foo(); // global object
foo.prototype.constructor(); // foo.prototype
var bar = {
baz: foo
};
bar.baz(); // bar
(bar.baz)(); // also bar
(bar.baz = bar.baz)(); // but here is global object
(bar.baz, bar.baz)(); // also global object
(false || bar.baz)(); // also global object
var otherFoo = bar.baz;
otherFoo(); // again global object
To consider deeply why (and that is more essential — how) this value may change in every function call, you may read Chapter 3. This where all mentioned above cases are discussed in detail.
Conclusion
At this step we finish this brief overview. Though, it turned out to not so “brief” 😉 However, the whole explanation of all these topics requires a complete book. We though didn’t touch two major topics: functions (and the difference between some types of functions, e.g. function declaration and function expression) and the evaluation strategy used in ECMAScript. Both topics may be found in the appropriate chapters of ES3 series: Chapter 5. Functions and Chapter 8. Evaluation strategy.
If you have comments, questions or additions, I’ll be glad to discuss them in comments.
Good luck in studying ECMAScript!
Written by: Dmitry A. Soshnikov
Published on: 2010-09-02
Tags: [[Scope]], Activation object, ECMA-262-3, ECMAScript, execution context, JavaScript, OOP, Scope chain, this, Variable object
13. September 2010 at 21:03
Too late now
I will carefully read it again tomorrow
Thanks for excellent article
13. September 2010 at 22:42
Great work!
Thanks
14. September 2010 at 02:32
This is such a great series!
14. September 2010 at 05:29
As usual you managed to make ECMA less obscure to me.
Thanks!
14. September 2010 at 09:00
Great !
Thanks
14. September 2010 at 12:50
Большое спасибо
Wirklich sehr hilfreich, da sehr verständlich!
14. September 2010 at 16:27
(function baz() { var x = 1; return { foo: function foo() { return ++x; }, bar: function bar() { return --x; } }; })(); var closures = baz(); console.log( closures.foo(), // 2 closures.bar() // 1 );Простите, может я что-то не допонимаю, но baz не будет видна, и консоль выдаст ошибку, нет?
14. September 2010 at 19:41
Dmitry – an excellent tour of many of the language fundamentals. This will be very useful to any developer looking to move into advanced JavaScript. I particularly liked your explanation of static vs dynamic scoping.
One small thing: In “Execution context stack” you say (a couple of times) that uncaught exceptions “exist” the stack. I think you meant to say “exit”
14. September 2010 at 20:12
excellent !! very clear !!
14. September 2010 at 22:01
Thanks all, glad to see more people interested in deep JavaScript.
@Benedikt, Froh, dass war hilfreich 😉
@neurostep, да, была опечатка, спасибо. Должна быть простая функция, без автозапуска.
@AngusC, yeah, thanks Angus; fixed those typos.
Dmitry.
17. September 2010 at 18:33
Hi Dmitry!
Thank you for this just great article. And many thanks lots for the awesome javascript blog!
18. September 2010 at 14:55
Отличная статья! Спасибо за Ваш труд!
Ваш ресурс по JavaScript — лучший. Очень жаль, что Вы больше не пишите на русском.
18. September 2010 at 17:17
hi~ Dmitry
do you have any article about the new operator?
I don’t quite understand the new operator’detail.
what will the js-engine do when i use the new operator create an object?
and what will happen when there is a return in the constructor(i.e a function)
18. September 2010 at 17:57
@Сергей,
спасибо. Да, возможно будет перевод этой статьи. Кстати, Вы тоже можете заняться. Из этой статьи тогда будет ссылка на внешний перевод.
@gniavaj,
Yes,
newin detail is explained in the Chapter 7.2. OOP. ECMAScript implementation. For all related with OOP features I recommend reading the whole chapter.As written in this lecture, a function applied to
newoperator, produces objects by specified pattern. The “pattern” here means that the function may assign tothisinstance properties (i.e. all objects created via the constructor have the same set of properties created via assigning tothisin the constructor). Also, the constructor sets the prototype of newly created objects.The complete algorithm of objects creation may be found again in the chapter 7.2 — in the Constructor section (and in particular in its subsection — Algorithm of objects creation).
In addition you may be interested in the algorithm of functions (i.e constructors themselves) creation; it may be found in the chapter 5 — Algorithm of function creation.
By default (if there is no explicit
returnin a function) the simple function returnsundefined.However, if the function is applied as a constructor (i.e. with
newoperator), then it by default returns a newly created object. The same may be done via explicit return ofthis, i.e. the newly created object.If the constructor returns another object — then this object is the result of the construction (and
thisvalue, i.e. the original created object is ignored).If the function returns some primitive value, then this primitive is ignored and
thisvalue instead used.This is briefly. In detail you may again found all this in the chapter 7.2 and mentioned above algorithm of objects creation.
Dmitry.
18. September 2010 at 19:15
Thanks!!!
25. September 2010 at 07:29
So Great Job~ Thanks.
25. September 2010 at 13:34
Dear Soshnikov. I have a question.
Is it possible to build a safe sandbox use “with” statment,that prevent some JS fragment access the DOM or BOM directly without change the original content of js?
Like :
with({window:winWrapped,document:docWrapperd,...}){ }It may helps a lot for the safety of 3rd party content.
Hoping for your sugesstion~
25. September 2010 at 18:05
@lenel
withstatement just adds its object to the front of the active context’s scope chain. If in your casewinWrappedanddocWrapperdwould be the special proxies which trace some real objects (in this casewindowanddocument), then you may usewithjust to make manipulating of properties syntactically the same as you’d use realwindowordocument.However, currently we don’t have real catch-all proxies — they should appear only in ES6.
So at the moment, even if you’ll be able to use in the block of
withstatement something likedocument.domain = '...'(wheredocumentis yourdocWrapperd) it will do nothing — you’ll just change the property of yourdocWrapperdobject, but not trace the realdocumentobject.Additionally, vars and FDs defined within the
withstatement, are not local for the with block. Also with statement is obsolete and is removed from the ES5 strict mode. So possibly you’ll want to make a sandbox using a function context:(function (window, document) { var auxiliaryData = 10; ... })(winWrapped, docWrapperd);But repeat, if you want exactly to prevent some direct access, e.g. to trace the access, you needed some catch-all mechanism which currently isn’t available neither in JS, nor in DOM layers.
P.S.: by the way, catch-all proxies are already available in nightly builds of Firefox 4.*beta. So you may install it and try to implement your wrappers with tracing.
The simpliest implementation:
var docWrapped = Proxy.create({ get: function (rcvr, name) { console.log('Get:' + name); return document[name]; }, set: function (rcvr, name, val) { console.log('Set:' + name); return document[name] = val; } }, Object.getPrototypeOf(document)); with ({document: docWrapped}) { document.foo = 10; // Set: foo console.log(document.foo); // Get: foo 10 }However, always remember, that host objects (such as
document) may not obey laws of native objects and native methods (such as Object.getPrototypeOf, etc.), so be careful with working with host objects.Dmitry.
26. September 2010 at 11:49
Большое спасибо
Thanks very much~ ,Hope this series become a book in future.
More and more ES programmer will get benefit from it.
Not like other popular languages, ES lack base theory evangelist so.
7. October 2010 at 00:48
Well done and thank you for your effort Dmitry! U’ve put some very good tutorials in here.
Greeting from Romania
7. October 2010 at 02:45
Hi Dmitry,
Thank you for great article! I love it. In figure 9, I wonder ‘y’ in box ‘foo AO’ should be 20 instead of 30. Thanks.
7. October 2010 at 13:19
@galileo_galilei, thanks, and send my greetings to Romania 😉
@n-miyo, hm, what a typo! Yeah, thanks, I’ll fix it. Be careful also for 2 and 3 figures — there property “y” should have value 30, not 20. It will be fixed too soon.
Dmitry.
8. October 2010 at 07:54
It’s really great and awesome post. Thanks for share with us !
27. October 2010 at 00:40
Большое спасибо за статью, Дмитрий.
В предложении “The recent such a mistake was e.g. in this book (thought, the mentioned chapter of the book is quite good).” мне кажется вместо thought должно быть though.
27. October 2010 at 10:57
@Sumon, yep, thanks.
@Qrilka, да, опечатка, спасибо; исправил.
14. November 2010 at 01:00
This is the best and succinct presentation of advanced JavaScript concepts that I came across. This explained many intricacies of JS and I could relate these concepts to similar in Lua. Execution Context was tricky initially but imagining it as a C Call frame turned into a dynamic object (simplification of course) helped.
Highly appreciate your effort and thanks for sharing.
24. November 2010 at 16:13
Am I allowed to have a better Chinese translation? The given translation is not good. The result will be posted on [[typeof.net]].
24. November 2010 at 17:18
@BelleveInvis
Yes, I think it’d be good to have an alternative translation version of the same language (we already have for some chapters of the ES3 series).
Inform me when you’ll be ready with your version, I’ll give a link.
Dmitry.
5. January 2011 at 18:36
Чувак – ты просто супер крут, спасибо!
17. January 2011 at 06:07
Hi Dmitry, great works!
Here I have a question: In figure 3, we see Foo have two properties: __proto__ and prototype. I tested them and like you mentioned, they’re different. But I’m confused why we must have both of them as kinds of “prototype”?
Thanks!
17. January 2011 at 19:06
@eengel
The real prototype of an object as said is the
__proto__property. So regarding figure 3, prototype ofFooisFunction.prototype.However, as also mentioned, a constructor does two things: (1) creates objects and (2) sets the prototype of the newly created objects.
And exactly this prototype object which is set as a
__proto__of the newly created objects is stored in theprototypeproperty of the constructor.Notice (on the same figure 3),
Foois a constructor,Functionis also a constructor,Objectis a constructor — and they all have propertyprototype.Fooconstructor created objectsaandband set their__proto__toFoo.prototype.So from all this, again:
__proto__is a prototype of an (any) object (in the specification it's called[[Prototype]]as said). AndConstructorFunction.prototypeis a prototype of those object which are created by theConstructorFunction.Dmitry.
18. January 2011 at 02:56
Definitely a good resource on JS execution context. I haven’t seen a better explanation of it anywhere else.
4. July 2011 at 11:26
I tried these concepts in FF & Firebug, but somehow it gives me an error in Object.prototype. What tools do you use to check these concepts, as in which browser and debugger?
5. July 2011 at 11:20
Answer to my above question is :
In JS we need to do something like this
b.prototype = a;
and the call to the calculate function would be like this:
b.prototype.calculate();
8. July 2011 at 18:48
Hats off to the tutorial.. it clearly reset my fundamental thinking of JS programming
4. August 2011 at 19:41
Great Job, thanks for the nice tutorial
12. August 2011 at 00:28
thank you Dmitry! another gem
11. September 2011 at 14:18
Dmitry, very nice article – thanks!
I have a question regarding how the scope chain is handled when inner functions reassign outer functions.
The following example illustrates my question:
var outer = function(){ // lets call this scope [[Scope1]] // note that NO local identifiers added to [[Scope1]] if( /* do some test */){ // new function reassigns outer function outer = function(){ // lets call this scope [[Scope2]] }; } else{ // other logic that does NOT introduce local identifiers } };I understand that if outer had defined local identifiers (variables or function declarations), then when the inner function reassigns outer,
the scope chain of it would include [[Scope1]]. So after reassignment, the Scope Chain when outer is called would be:
But in the specific case above, outer did not define local identifiers and [[Scope1]] is essentially “empty” since built-in identifiers like arguments and this would be shadowed by the same named identifiers of the inner function.
In such case, is [[Scope1]] omitted from the Scope chain after reassignment since it does not contain reachable identifiers?
What I am trying to accomplish is a memory performant method of reassigning functions at execution time. The assignment, is of course, dependent on conditions not available at runtime.
If [[Scope1]] persists, I will probably resort to the following more runtime memory consuming method.
var outer = function(){ // note that NO identifiers added to the local scope if( /* do some test */){ outer = outer.test1; // new function reassigns outer function & cleans up test1 & test2 } else{ outer = outer.test2; // new function reassigns outer function & cleans up test1 & test2 } }; outer.test1 = function(){}; outer.test2 = function(){};The overall goal is to have outer‘s scope chain (after being reassigned) to be: AO + [[Scope2]].
11. September 2011 at 18:52
Jerry
By the spec — no; i.e. theoretically a function just captures parent scope chain as its
[[Scope]]property regardless some conditions. However, in practice, yes, many implementations provide sensible optimizations capturing only used free variables (i.e. if none of parent variables is used, such functions even are not closures).However,
evalcan break such optimizations, since in this case it’s not known in advance which bindings will be used insideeval. I described this case in detail here and this part of lexical environment articles (notice in the later link that Python e.g. in contrast with JS doesn’t worry aboutevalat all in this case).25. September 2011 at 19:40
Guy, you already did great job.Nice articles.
I was read finished all related article, really need say “Thanks a lot”, you’ve been resolved lots of problems confused me.
And i will continue to read those again, i know i still has lots misunderstanding.
3. November 2011 at 18:05
thanks from the deep bottom of my heart~~~thanks for ur works~~
23. November 2011 at 16:34
Great Job of explaining a really confusing topic.
The bad thing is, that I now may have to review a lot of my code for optimisations.
thx again
Kai
26. December 2011 at 18:41
Thank you so much for posting this! This is exactly what I needed in JavaScript.
You are a hero!
6. March 2012 at 14:17
Excellent work!
Thank you so much.
19. March 2012 at 08:32
Thank you for the great article. I finally understand closures and scope.
20. April 2012 at 01:11
Excellent javascript articles! Thanks a lot
27. April 2012 at 04:11
Excellent explanation. Thanks!
25. May 2012 at 00:03
Hi, Dmitry,
From above, the __proto__ property is equal to the prototype property of Function object. what is the __proto__ property of Function object for?
1. July 2012 at 19:04
Thank you for the great article about ECMAScript.
11. July 2012 at 03:47
Dmitry,
Thank you for great article. This is what I was looking for: just removes all confusion when starting to learn JS.
10. October 2012 at 23:54
Thanks Dmitry. This is so far the best resource I ever found for learning JavaScript.
17. October 2012 at 19:17
I want to translate your articles into Chinese. Could you allow me to do so? Thank you.
18. October 2012 at 19:34
@kingysu
Yeah, sure, send me the link when it will be finished. Also you might want to check already existing several Chinese translations of these articles.
13. November 2012 at 22:38
Hi Dmitry:
Thanks a lot for you answered my last question several days ago!
And, There is a question about prototype.
if I hava a object
awith a property, which name is “prototype”, like below:var a={prototype:{b:20}};when I use
a.prototypein the code block, which one should be taken? the prototype object,a.prototypeor the value of property,{b:20}?and step further:
var a={prototype:{}}; a.prototype=a.prototype;At the last sentence, I set the prototype object to the value of object
a‘s property, or I set the prototype object to empty object?14. November 2012 at 21:42
@piglite
The explicit
prototypeproperty makes sense only for functions (in this case this property refers to the prototype of the objects which are created by this function).And for any other object, the explicit
prototypeproperty is just the simple property, it’s not the object’s prototype. The object’s prototype is, as is said in this article, the implicit property__proto__:var F = function() {}; var f = new F; console.log(f.__proto__ === F.prototype); // trueMore detailed explanations are in chapter 7.2 ES3 and also in this article above.
14. November 2012 at 22:11
@Dmitry Soshnikov
thanks you reply, but I still confused that how does the implementation to tell the property of object “a” or a.prototype object, when it face the same writing way “a.prototype”?
and please read the code as below:
var Model = { prototype: { init: function() {} }, create: function() { var object = Object.create(this); object.parent = this; object.prototype = object.fn = Object.create(this.prototype); return object; } };when use the
createmethod to creat a new object:and which should be the
A.prototyeobject? the property of Model object, mean the object of{init:function(){}}or the Model’s really prototype object, meanModel.prototype?14. November 2012 at 23:43
@Dmitry Soshnikov
Oh, I know what is your mean, finally!
When a function was used as constructor, the value of it’s prototype property should be referenced by the new
object._proto_, in other cases, the prototype is just a property.So, the sample of mine,
mean the value of
object.prototypeproperty is a anonymous object which was created by Object’s create method, and theobject.prototype.__proto__is the value of Model’s prototype property,{init:function(){}},depend on the create method ways.Is it right?
14. November 2012 at 23:54
@piglite
Yes, that’s correct.
24. December 2012 at 23:10
Hi Dmitry，
I tried following code. It seems function not always save the parent scope(not sure if I misunderstand the term :)). If a context is live in context stack, function just keep reference other than copy.
function foo4(p) { var x4 = p; function f1(p){ var y4 = p; return function b1(){ console.log("in b1 x4: " + x4); console.log("in b1 y4: " + y4); }; }; var r_f1 = f1(25); x4= x4*100; var r_f2 = f1(35); r_f1(); r_f2(); return f1(7); }; console.log("foo4"); var r_foo4_1 = foo4(10); // x4 will be 1000 other than 10 and stored in context of r_foo4_1 as 1000 var r_foo4_2 = foo4(20); // x4 will be 2000 other than 20 and stored in context of r_foo4_1 as 2000 console.log("call r_f4_1()"); r_foo4_1(); //x4 is 1000 console.log("call r_f4_2()"); r_foo4_2(); //x4 is 2000Am I right or miss something? Thanks.
26. December 2012 at 00:32
@Steven Guan
Yes, that’s correct. A function never copies the parent scope, it’s always the reference is kept to it (regardless whether it’s still active or finished). As long as there’s at least one reference to the scope object it’s kept in memory (this is how closures work — they just keep this reference and the object is still alive even after the context ends).
26. December 2012 at 23:10
@Dmitry Soshnikov
If always reference is kept, the line 26,
r_foo4_1();, should show2000than1000, am I right? In fact it show1000.26. December 2012 at 23:26
@Steven Guan
No, two separate calls to
foo4, create two different activation objects with their ownx4inside. So the correct result is1000and2000.27. December 2012 at 23:50
Thanks
3. January 2013 at 07:19
if we are using someone else javascript library how i am suppose to see the eligible property of a particular object from that library.
i cant find any IDE that can do it.
OR do we go to lib code and see the eligible properties come back and use them.
Do people in the outside world do work this way ? (i have seen blog of some popular develop they seem to use vim,vi,emac)
or i am think all wrong here ?
i came from java,c++ background
19. January 2013 at 23:40
var Core= {}; (function init(){ Core.foo = function(){ console.log("in foo"); } })();Core. “{now if i press some key here ..is there any IDE which can show me “foo” in suggestion list}”
20. January 2013 at 22:06
@bhuvan yes, there can many such IDEs (I cannot recommend one though, since use vim at the moment). But even simple Firebug console can do this. Or try running
Object.getOwnPropertyKeys(Core)to introspect your object.24. January 2013 at 23:50
var CORE = ( function init(my){ //do stuff... })(CORE || {});I see a lot of code do this “(CORE || {})”.
What does it do ?
30. January 2013 at 06:55
for (var k=0; k < 3; k++){ data[k]=function(){ alert(k); }; } for (var k=0; k < 3; k++){ data[k](); // 0,1,2 }how to understand the second loop counter "k".
13. February 2013 at 15:07
Hi Dmitry,
Thanks for the wonderful article. However I have a question about the constructors section and the figure 3 “A constructor and objects relationship”.
I have a code snippets as follows
function A(y) { this.x = 25; this.y = y; }; b = new A(20); c = new A(30); b.x = 10; console.log(c.x) // Prints out 25 as I expect.Now if I change this code to be like your illustration to the below
function A(y) { this.y = y; }; A.prototype.x = 25; b = new A(20); c = new A(30); b.x = 10; console.log(c.x); // This also prints 25.Given your illustration in Figure 3,
xis now set on the prototype ofA, to which the__proto__of bothbandcare linked. So I would expect theconsole.log(c.x)to print out10.Am I missing something here ?
Thanks again for the nice article
13. February 2013 at 17:54
@Nikhil, assignment operation for simple properties always create own property. And this own property is said to shadow the property from the prototype (the property on the prototype still exist, you just don’t reach it since it’s found directly on the object).
So in both your case when you do
b.x = 10, you create/modify own property on thebobject. It doesn’t modifyxon theA.prototype.function A() {} A.prototype.x = 25; var b = new A; var c = new A; console.log( b.x, // 25 c.x, // 25, A.prototype.x, // 25 b.hasOwnProperty('x'), // false c.hasOwnProperty('x'), // false A.prototype.hasOwnProperty('x') // true ); b.x = 10; console.log( b.x, // 10 c.x, // 25, A.prototype.x, // 25 b.hasOwnProperty('x'), // true c.hasOwnProperty('x'), // false A.prototype.hasOwnProperty('x') // true ); delete b.x; console.log( b.x, // 25 c.x, // 25, A.prototype.x, // 25 b.hasOwnProperty('x'), // false c.hasOwnProperty('x'), // false A.prototype.hasOwnProperty('x') // true );17. February 2013 at 00:43
this is the best article about execute context in javascript I ever read, thanks!
20. February 2013 at 09:46
Just a question… what do you mean saying “cannot change value of this” ? this always refer to the actual execution context, but we can change the execution context by using the well know call/apply javascript functions. Am I right ?
20. March 2013 at 05:24
Thanks for this article, by the way I wanna ask you a question. Which tool did you use to draw diagrams in this article?
20. March 2013 at 11:21
@nicholas, thanks, glad it’s useful.
@Jone
We should not confuse an execution context and the this value concepts.
The
thiscan be called a context object, and an execution context is a different thing.A function can be applied (called) using different context objects (as correctly you mention using e.g.
applyorcall). However, at the time of running the execution context, we cannot assign a new value tothisobject (i.e. we cannot dothis = {foo: 10};, as we can do e.g. in Python with itsselfargument).@David, it is MS Visio.
10. April 2013 at 17:23
谢谢
21. April 2013 at 22:31
Hi Dmitry,
Thanks for the wonderful article. However I have a question about the constructors section and the figure 3 “A constructor and objects relationship”.
I have a code snippets as follows
function Foo(y){ this.y=y; this.say=function(){ alert(this.y+"tttttttttttttttt")} } Foo.prototype.says=function(){ alert(this.y+"i am the y property")} function F(y){ this.y=y} F=Foo;// In this way i want the object test to use Foo's constructor and i did it. //F.prototype=new Foo(); I don't know what the code here really means,but it works well. //F.prototype=Foo.prototype; there is,when the say() method is invoked,an error saying that test.say() is not a function. var test=new F(8); test.say(); test.says(); alert(test.constructor+"constructor");I wonder to know which way is the correct and why
19. May 2013 at 06:26
Thanks, It’s real solve my many confusions when read js framework code. Used i think Javascript only can define variables, functions, change DOM elements.
谢谢，顶
6. September 2013 at 11:28
Are these built-in shapes in Visio or something custom? I’d like to use something similar to document some JS design patterns.
24. September 2013 at 03:51
I must admit (I just can’t leave without comments after reading for sure), this is an excellent post and undoubtedly the blog itself. Thank you Dmitry!
24. September 2013 at 22:26
@Kevin Pauli, yeah, it’s MS Visio.
@Indrajeet Zala, thanks for reading, glad it’s useful.
26. November 2013 at 00:42
Awesome blog … Thank you
14. December 2013 at 19:44
Hi, @Dmitry Soshnikov, here is the chinese edition: http://weizhifeng.net/javascript-the-core.html
17. December 2013 at 11:41
@JeremyWei, good job, will add the link.
17. December 2013 at 20:38
Hi Dmitry,
I have a question about this example:
var data = []; for (var k = 0; k < 3; k++) { data[k] = function () { alert(k); }; } data[0](); // 3, but not 0 data[1](); // 3, but not 1 data[2](); // 3, but not 2I tested it gives 3 in all 3 cases.
However,earlier in the closure, you mentioned:
If static scope is used, then in the code above function creation happens while the FOR loop is executed, the free variable “k” will come from global VO, which will have during the FOR loop values 0,1,2 for “k” wouldn’t it- as the statement
data[k] = function(){ alert(k);}is executed? So if it is static scope from that time , then whendata[0],data[1]…is executed we should be getting 0,1,2.I feel either my understanding of what static scope is not correct or that AO of the anonymous function just connects it’s implicit
__parent__property Global VO BUT not take the value of K then(at the function creation), but it searches Global VO which is the scope at the function execution stage?Look forward to hearing your explanation. Thanks in advance!
18. December 2013 at 13:17
@hr
Yes, it’s precisely this case. Notice, that it’s still the static scope:
var k = 10; var foo = function() { console.log(k); }; (function() { var k = 20; foo(); // 10, but not 20 })();I.e. function find the
kin the scope chain of the context where it’s created, but not where it’s executed.See this chapter for further explanations.
21. December 2013 at 10:59
Thx. Dmitry!
17. January 2014 at 00:50
Thank you for the great article, it explained a lot.
16. March 2014 at 07:16
following example code on this article must be modified .
======================================================== var a = { x : 10, calculate : function(z){ return this.x + this.y + z } // this.y isn't a property of "a or a's parents" }; var b = { y : 20, __proto__ : a }; var c = { y : 30, __proto__ : a }; // call the inherited method b.calculrate(30); // NaN c.calculrate(40); // NaN ======================================================== var a = { x : 10 }; var b = { y : 20, __proto__ : a calculate : function(z){ return this.x + this.y + z } // this.y is a property of parents "a" }; var c = { y : 30, __proto__ : a calculate : function(z){ return this.x + this.y + z } // this.y is a property of parents "a" }; // call the inherited method b.calculrate(30); //60 c.calculrate(40); //8016. March 2014 at 07:24
there is a mistake on comment of modified code by me .
20. April 2014 at 23:11
Thanks, nice post
21. May 2014 at 18:14
Hi Dmitry,
I’ve a question:
you said EC of eval will use the VO in the caller’s EC. What about the this value?
21. May 2014 at 21:51
@Jackson, yes, the
thisvalue is reused from the calling context as well. Although notice, that in case of indirect eval, theevalruns in the global context.9. July 2014 at 03:54
The best article on protoype i have seen,would like to read it again and again.
24. July 2014 at 17:00
@Dmitry, thanks for your great work.
24. July 2014 at 23:31
@Mukesh Kumar Saini, @Hong, thanks for reading.
30. July 2014 at 11:18
Ok, really last try, here is a complete, corrected, corrected version of my previous postings — did I mention a preview button
I’ve a question about “downward funarg problem”, and the following sentence:
The problem is: from which scope a value of an identifier should be used — statically saved at a function’s creation or dynamically formed at execution (i.e. a scope of a caller)? To avoid this ambiguity and to form a closure, a static scope is decided to be used:
During translation I found the term: statically saved at a function’s creation
The word created somewhat confuses me, because as we said, a function gets it’s context at creation time, where context state, and scope chain among other things are created in EC. So the statically scope for
foorefers ,in my humble optinion, to the scope offoodeclaration, in this case the global context scope.Therefore, in my German translation I tend to purpose the word function declaration instead of creation, this is maybe wrong, but as I’ve learned the
[[Scope]]property is function related, too (not EC only, because EC will be destroyed at some point, and it’s context state (scope chain property) get lost). Thus, some reference tofoo‘s definition context scope should(?) be stored at declaration time, too. Where else the function should know from which scope it steams from? I think the function can’t know about it’s scope at declaration without a reference at declaration time; but as I said earlier: I’m maybe wrong.Another possibility for static scope mentioned, could be the current context of the caller, where
fooas the argument tofunArgis passed (and maybe evaluated (means created?)), in this case, the static scope would be the global context scope either.Can you help me to clarify this, please?
1. August 2014 at 12:57
Hi Dmitry,
Thanks for sharing all of this extremely useful information. Thanks also for continuing to check back in to answer questions over the past 4 years!
Here’s my question:
In figure 11, should Global VO include an entry for function baz (similar to figure 7, where Global VO included an entry for function bar)?
thanks
1. August 2014 at 20:34
@Andreas Bolm
In this case created I meant exactly declared (or defined).
var x = 10; // Function "foo" is created // (or defined, or declared). function foo() { console.log(x); } // Function "bar" is created. function bar(funArg) { var x = 20; funArg(); // 10 (from saved [[Scope]]), but not 20 } // Function "bar" is called. // Function "foo" is passed as an argument. bar(foo);In the example above at activation of the
funArg(which is thefoofunction), the variablexis resolved in the lexically saved scope (i.e. 10), not in the scope of the caller (that would be 20).1. August 2014 at 20:41
@Gerald, thanks, glad it’s useful.
Correct, it should 😉 Probably I should’ve put it explicitly there, but currently I think it’s covered by the
<other properties>section of thatGlobal VOtable on the figure 11.2. August 2014 at 16:21
@Dmitry Soshnikov
As you have shown in the above example, I’ve taken the necessary alterations in my translation accordingly.
I’ve to thank you for your time, and for sharing that excellent knowlege with us.
Must humble
Andreas Bolm
9. October 2014 at 05:53
This is a great piece of work. Thank you very much for sharing this.
19. February 2015 at 10:38
This is by far the best explanation that I have found on prototypal inheritance in JS. Thank you so much! greatly appreciated.
12. April 2015 at 01:05
Hi Dmitry, what is the difference between scope chain lookup and identifier resolution, are they same ? Thanks
12. April 2015 at 09:59
@blajs, yes, “scope chain lookup” and “identifier resolution” may be used interchangeably. The scope chain lookup is a mechanism which is used to resolve (i.e. to find) an identifier.
3. June 2015 at 10:43
Guy, thanks a lot for this excellent article! Eventually, I got the very special concepts of the prototype-based OO used in JavaScript, after so many years
Your samples are just awesome.
8. August 2015 at 01:45
Great Article! Thanks a lot!
13. August 2015 at 21:37
Fantastic article. This is something i was looking for.
GREAT JOB Dmitry.
19. August 2015 at 04:24
Fabulous
5. October 2015 at 03:58
Thank You Dmitry,
Excellent series of articles.
It has clarified much of my misunderstanding.
5. October 2015 at 13:08
@Sajid, thanks, glad it’s useful.
26. October 2015 at 04:46
Thank you for much for this article. super good.
19. November 2015 at 01:27
Very clearly explained. Thank you so much Dmitry
6. December 2015 at 06:35
Excellent !
19. February 2016 at 18:29
Great work!
the ES6(aka ES2015) brings new problem.
var data = []; for (let k = 0; k < 3; k++) { data[k] = function () { alert(k); }; } data[0](); // 0 data[1](); // 1 data[2](); // 2Does let change the scope chain? Does the k exist in the data_k's function VO scope ?
20. February 2016 at 22:00
@magicdawn,
Per ES6
letis a block-scoped. So every time we enter the block of theforloop, a new environment is created, and the function created inside the block, is created relatively to this environment.Roughly it’s similar to (although at engine level much more optimized than this):
var data = []; for (var k = 0; k < 3; k++) { (function(x) { data[x] = function () { alert(x); }; })(k); }21. February 2016 at 03:48
Thanks.