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  • New: proposal-class-modifiers

New: proposal-class-modifiers

# Ranando King (5 years ago)

This proposal is intended to add abstract and final to class definitions so as to modify the inheritability of a class.

rdking/proposal

# Isiah Meadows (5 years ago)

How would this interop with Object.create, Reflect.construct, and Object.setPrototypeOf?

# Ranando King (5 years ago)

Object.create and Object.setPrototypeOf operate on a different level than what I'm targeting. I can conceive of a means to make even these functions respect these tokens. However, if I were going to do that, I'd want these tokens to be applicable to objects and functions directly. Reflect.construct is essentially part of the process for new and would be required to respect these tokens. I'm still open on how far the effect of these tokens should extend.

# Isiah Meadows (5 years ago)

For abstract, I could see that being three things:

  • Throw a reference error if an abstract method is called with no concrete implementation
  • Throw a type error if the constructor is called without its abstract methods implemented
  • Throw a type error if a subclass fails to implement all remaining abstract methods and is not itself abstract

Each of these could be reasonably tacked on at the end.

For final, you'll need to create a way to block all means of Object.create, with class constructors being the sole exception. That complicates the mechanism tremendously, since prototype-based inheritance alone can't enforce this unless you make Object.setPrototypeOf(obj, parent) no longer directly equivalent to obj.[[Prototype]] = parent.

# Logan Smyth (5 years ago)

Wouldn't it be better abstract's target.prototype === newTarget.prototype check to be target === newTarget? It's not really the prototype that is at issue here, it is the class constructor itself. It would not be good if you could sidestep abstract by taking the prototype from the class and making a new constructor for it.

For final is it worth throwing an extends time vs just throwing when the class is instantiated? It seems like final would otherwise require new private state on the constructor itself, where otherwise it would essentially just be the negation of the check abstract was doing already.

Also, if those make sense, what do we gain by having these be keywords instead of decorators?

# Isiah Meadows (5 years ago)

@Logan If this helps explain my stance, I'm skeptical of the use, and it really disrupts the consistency of JS's object model quite a bit. It makes sense to enforce at a static level, but not really at a dynamic runtime level. Also, this is lacking precedent in other dynamic languages with classes: Python, Ruby, Smalltalk, Lua, Io, and pretty much every other dynamic language with class- or prototype-based inheritance (that wasn't made for the JVM) doesn't support final classes. Python (IIRC through a decorator) and Ruby support abstract methods, but not final classes/methods.

Isiah Meadows contact at isiahmeadows.com, www.isiahmeadows.com

# Ranando King (5 years ago)

@Logan

It would not be good if you could sidestep abstract by taking the

prototype from the class and making a new constructor for it.

That's precisely why it's a prototype test and not a constructor test. Everything that defines the initial "shape" of the class is on the prototype. The constructor only comes into play after a new object has been created with the corresponding prototype attached. If the prototype of the constructor being called matches the prototype of newTarget, and that prototype has been flagged as abstract, the new object creation is halted immediately. Constructor comparisons can easily be spoofed simply by Proxying the constructor. Where target would be the un-Proxied constructor, newTarget would be the Proxy. They wouldn't match so the abstract test would fail and an object would be constructed.

Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, the definition of a class is its prototype. There are those who refuse to accept this reality, and that's fine. But if you make the wrong assumptions as a result of an incorrect understanding, the results won't turn out how you want.

With final, the point is that a class that extends from a final class cannot be defined, not simply "cannot be instantiated". Even without instantiating, a defined class can still be used.

...it would essentially just be the negation of the check abstract was

doing already.

That's precisely correct. These 2 new tokens are the polar opposites of each other. One restricts construction to cases where the prototypes of target and newTarget match (final), while the other requires that they don't match (abstract). That's also the reason they cannot be used together.

@Isiah Sounds like part of what you're looking for is abstract methods rather than an abstract class. I wasn't targeting that. If I were, that would be something to add to proposal-common-class-modifiers. If I were to look at what you're describing more holistically, you're looking for "interface", a way to set up a contract for what's supposed to be there and require it all to be present. I wasn't targeting that either. In fact, that would probably be a good proposal all by itself. I'll give an implementation for that some thought. However, with this proposal, all I'm thinking about is inheritance constraints.

As for final, I need you to convince me that it's worth while preventing Object.create and Object.setPrototype. It's shouldn't be that difficult to do, but I don't have an understanding of why you'd want to. Especially when you consider that when some form of private goes in (assuming it's not Symbol.Private) class instances will be quite a bit different than vanilla objects.

I get that final is something not seen in dynamic languages (outside the JVM), but it is a useful tool in giving developers control over how their code can be used. Isn't that part of the point of trying to implement private data in ES?

# Logan Smyth (5 years ago)

Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, the definition of a

class is its prototype. There are those who refuse to accept this reality, and that's fine. But if you make the wrong assumptions as a result of an incorrect understanding, the results won't turn out how you want.

Can you please keep this extremely condescending tone out of these discussions? I don't know how you expect people to get on board with your proposals when you constantly imply that those that disagree with you don't know what they are talking about.

The constructor only comes into play after a new object has been created

with the corresponding prototype attached.

A prototype with an entirely different constructor is an entirely different class. The behavior of a constructor is critical to the behavior of an instance of a class, and in an ideal world is responsible for defining all of the own properties of the instance. I don't understand how a prototype on its own could be considered to represent the class as a whole.

Constructor comparisons can easily be spoofed simply by Proxying the

constructor.

I'm not sure I see how that would be any different for intercepting the .prototype access.

With final, the point is that a class that extends from a `final

class***cannot be defined***, not simply "cannot be instantiated". Even without instantiating, a definedclass` can still be used.

I don't disagree that it it would throw as early as possible in an ideal world, just that it seems to complicate the implementation dramatically with out a ton of benefit that I can see. I think it does depend on your overall goal though. Is final meant to mean that the prototype may never exist anywhere but the head of the prototype chain, or just that a subclass may not be constructed? That I guess goes to Isiah's questions about Object.create and such as well. It seems like 99% of the time I'd be much more interested in preventing creation of subclasses. I don't particularly care about the exact location of an object in the prototype chain.

# Ranando King (5 years ago)

Can you please keep this extremely condescending tone out of these

discussions? I don't know how you expect people to get on board with your proposals when you constantly imply that those that disagree with you don't know what they are talking about.

My apologies if you thought my tone condescending. My intent was merely to point out that assuming the constructor to be the correct point of focus for the implementation of abstract will only lead to implementations that don't work as desired. I tend to speak (and write) in a very matter-of-fact tone for things that I have tested and proven to myself repeatedly. Again, it wasn't my intention to do anything more than state the facts and explain the dangers of potential misconceptions.

A prototype with an entirely different constructor is an entirely

different class. The behavior of a constructor is critical to the behavior of an instance of a class, and in an ideal world is responsible for defining all of the own properties of the instance. I don't understand how a prototype on its own could be considered to represent the class as a whole.

I get what you're saying, and on that point, you're not wrong, especially for base classes. However, consider the inheritance case. The instance object, before any own properties can be attached, has the prototype of the class and its base classes attached. Even if the constructors are empty, the class is still complete. After construction of the instance object, the job of the constructor can just as easily be performed by any other function of the class. The constructor itself is simply a convenient place to perform this initialization before any other code has the opportunity to touch the instance. I don't mean to argue this point. I've already accepted that my perspective on this is not the popular understanding. However, every attempt I've made to hash out how things work (for several proposals) using a constructor-first perspective led to unacceptable trade-offs and complications.

I'm not sure I see how that would be any different for intercepting the .prototype access.

Whether it's the constructor or prototype, a private slot would need to be used to mark the class as abstract. Since this proposal (currently) only affects class definitions, and class definitions mark the prototype as non-writable, non-configurable, there's no way for the original constructor to have its prototype replaced. Even Proxy can't change this. If the flag is put on the constructor, then it is easily bypassed by manually creating a constructor function and copying the prototype object. However, if the flag is placed on the prototype object itself, there is no way to spoof it. This also makes it possible for final to prevent Object.create and Object.setPrototypeOf, but I'm still waiting for Isiah to convince me it's a good thing to do.

Is final meant to mean that the prototype may never exist anywhere but

the head of the prototype chain, or just that a subclass may not be constructed?

It's closer to the former than the latter. At present, I'm thinking this should only affect classes, but if Isiah (or anyone else) comes up with a good reason why it should also block Object.create and Object.setPrototypeOf, then it would be completely the former. Just preventing construction of a subclass instance doesn't seem to have much merit to me.