prototypal
Prototypal refers to a style of object-oriented programming in which objects inherit directly from other objects rather than from classes. The concept originated in language designs such as Self and Smalltalk and became widely known through JavaScript, where objects can have a prototype chain linking them to ancestor objects. In a prototypal system, a new object is created by specifying an existing object as its prototype, and the new object can delegate property lookup to its prototype if it does not contain the requested property itself. This delegation mechanism allows for dynamic extension of objects and flexible sharing of behavior.
Prototypal inheritance replaces the traditional class-based hierarchy with prototype chains. When a property is accessed, the
In JavaScript, the native Object.create method creates an object with a specified prototype, while the variable
The prototypal approach offers memory efficiency for shared methods and easier runtime composition. However, it can