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I'm relatively new in javaScript and I was doing some inheritance. I thought I know what prototype is but then i met with uber method. Now I don't know the difference between those two. I know that uber is like super in java and that's all. But then prototype is something that bothers me. If you can give me some simple example of using those two I would appreciate it very.

anicicn
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    As far as I am aware, there is no `uber` method in JavaScript unless you're using a library which adds this method to objects. Are you using a library by any chance? – Qantas 94 Heavy Jan 14 '15 at 11:17
  • Well I'm using one. It might be defined in it. But still I don't know the difference assuimng I know what uber is. It's just a pointer to a parent's object – anicicn Jan 14 '15 at 11:22
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    I've added an answer about the `uber` method Douglas Crockford uses in his inheritance tutorials assuming that you meant this. It seems to be the most popular example. Where exactly did you discover `uber`? – Sascha Wolf Jan 14 '15 at 11:23
  • I'm not sure Crockford is the best way to learn prototype as I've never seen him implement "classical inheritance" correctly. The following answer covers constructor functions and prototype: http://stackoverflow.com/a/16063711/1641941 hope it helps – HMR Jan 15 '15 at 01:26

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uber is just a sugar method Douglas Crockford created in his examples of inheritance in JavaScript which should help the devoloper when working with the very, very flexible nature of JavaScripts prototypal inheritance.

This method doesn't exist in native JavaScript.

He explains the sugar methods he uses in detail here.

In his examples he defines the uber method as a helper method to access the parent implementation of a method.

Let's assume that you have a "class" (I use this term to ease the example; strictly spoken there are no classes in JavaScript) Human which has a walk method. If you now "extend" this class in an Infant class, you could overwrite walk in such a way that the infant only crawls since it can't walk.

It's obviously not a great example but I hope you get the point.

In such a case you could use Douglas Crockfords uber method to access the Human implementation of walk in the Infant "class".

To compare JavaScripts native prototype object and Douglas Crockfords uber method would make no sense, since both serve completly different purposes.

If you want more information on JavaScripts prototype you can take a look at this question.

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Sascha Wolf
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