Question

So..Let’s say I have the following code snippet

function Rectangle(w,h){
    this.width = w;
    this.height = h;
}

Rectangle.prototype.area = function(){ return this.width * this.height; }

var object2 = new Rectangle(10,5);
object2.area();

So…object2 is invoking area() method, which is defined in Rectangle’s prototype.

How does object2 know existence of area() method? I guess there must be something like…pointer in object2 that points to Rectangle’s prototype?

Answer 1

This is implementation specific, but in Firefox and Webkit, the pointer is in the object’s __proto__ property.

See MDC reference.

Another link that explains in more detail the internals of property lookups.