Defining Classes in JS (ES5 vs Prototype)

Question

I am looking at some common ways of defining classes (Constructor Pattern in Book by Addy Osmani).

2 main ways I see:

• Simple Prototypes:

  function Person(name) { this.name = name; }
  Person.prototype.getName = function() { return this.name; } 
  

• ES5 Object.create, Object.defineProperties

I am wondering, why might I even consider the ES5 way which appears to be alot more complicated? Is there any advantages? Maybe the only main advantage is having read-only properties like some strongly typed language?

Answer 1

Object.defineProperties is only needed if you want those properties to have particular attributes, e.g. non-enumerable, read-only, or with getters or setter functions.

There's no need to use it for normal classes and their methods, where the "simple prototype" method you describe is perfectly adequate.