Simple JavaScript OOP for C++, Java and C# Developers

Introduction

Most developers are familiar with object-oriented programming and design in languages like Java, C++ and C#. JavaScript, however, does not provide any obvious means to support this kind of object-oriented development. The result is that structured code becomes very hard to write for developers new to the world of JavaScript.
If you have written a few programs in JavaScript and wondered if it’s possible to add more structure to your programs using object-oriented strategies, this tip is for you. In this post, we will look at the use of a small JavaScript utility that allows us to structure our JavaScript programs in the form of “classes” and objects.

Background

Traditionally, object-oriented programming relies on creating classes and creating object instances from classes. This approach to OOP was pioneered by a language known as Simula and eventually became the basis of object-oriented programming in popular languages such as C++ and Java.
Object-oriented programming in JavaScript, however, comes from a different OOP paradigm known as prototype-based programming. It was first introduced by the language Self with the aim of solving some problems in class-based programming. This style of programming has no concept of classes, and being very different from the class-based style we’re usually familiar with, it requires a learning curve.
The utility presented below, however, provides a way to mimic class-based OOP in JavaScript.