functional_pattern.js

/**
 * The functional pattern, defined in Douglas Crockford's "Javascript: The Good Parts", allows for
 * JavaScript to achieve both inheritance and information hiding (private variables) with a compact syntax. 
 * The specification that is passed in, as well as potentially more vars you may define in each pseudo-class, are not
 * accessible from the object that is returned, we consider these private variables. Public vars may 
 * be added to the "that" return object as desired.
 */

/**
 * Person is our base pseudo-class
 * @param spec
 * @returns {{}}
 */
var person = function (spec) {

    // set spec defaults
    spec.name = spec.name || '';

    // setup the return object, empty object literal in our base pseudo-class
    var that = {};

    // add public capabilities
    that.getName = function () {
        return spec.name;
    };

    return that;
};

/**
 * Employee pseudo-class inherits from Person
 * @param spec
 * @returns {*}
 */
var employee = function (spec) {

    // set spec defaults
    spec.employeeId = spec.employeeId || 0;

    // setup the return object, call to the parent pseudo-class, "person"
    var that = person(spec);

    // add public capabilities
    that.getEmployeeId = function () {
        return spec.employeeId;
    }

    return that;
};

var curt = employee({name: 'Curtis Branum', employeeId: '207'});

// console-logging the "curt" object won't reveal any private properties, you must use the getters to access them
console.log(curt, curt.getName(), curt.getEmployeeId());