Hello, everyone 👋. I am a newcomer when it comes to JavaScript. I come from an OOP background (C# and Java). I’ve recently learned that ES6 has a class
keyword that preforms similarly (but not exactly) to common OOP languages. Normally I would be inclined to use this feature in my projects; however, it came to my attention that the usage of class
in JavaScript seems to be heavily discussed (mostly in a negative light). My questions to this community are:
- Should it be used often, sparingly, or be outright avoided?
- What are its advantages and disadvantages?
- Are there specific cases where the usage of
class
excels?
Please share your thoughts.
I don’t like/use the
class
keyword in JS, because I quite like the paradigm with prototypes & stuff, and that keyword tries to make it fit into a totally different paradigm, which doesn’t really work IMHO. With TS, I find it even more useless, because I can use TS as a functional language, with POD, functions and interfaces only. I’ve written entire projects without ever using and needing this keyword, which is a proof IMHO that it’s an unnecessary addition. Not sure how unpopular is my opinion tho 😅I’ve read somewhere that Javascript is more of a prototype-oriented language rather than an object-oriented one. Do you agree with this?
Thank you! But maybe not right now; I’m still learning the basics. Have you considered write an article about it? 😮
JavaScript is a prototype-based language. The class keyword uses prototypes.