Demonstrating Old Style JS Inheritance Non Obviousness

simple.js

// I know its contrived, but you get the gist :)

'use strict';

function BasePrototype() {
    this.mary = 'Mary';
    this.lamb = true;
    this.little = false;
}

BasePrototype.prototype.had = function() {
    return true;
};

function Little() {

    // Remember this technique?
    if (!(this instanceof Little)) {
        return new Little();
    }

    // Now we have inheritance: not super obvious, per se, especially if this was a larger file, or there was
    // a lot more going on inside of the 'constructor'. There's no normal happy path to do this.
    // Also, if you add this *before* the above checking instance, it will fail. Its very fragile
    // It was also (and still is) super common.
    BasePrototype.call(this);

    this.fleece = 'white';
    this.as = 'snow';
}