Crockford recommends this kind of Object.create shim:
if (typeof Object.create != "function") {
Object.create = function (o) {
function F(){}
F.prototype = o;
return new F;
};
}
But please don't do this.
The problem with this approach is that ES5 Object.create has a signature of 2 arguments: first — an object to inherit from, and second (optional) — an object representing properties (or rather, descriptors) to add to newly created object.
Object.create(O[, Properties]); // see 15.2.3.5, ECMA-262 5th ed.
What we have is an inconsistent implementation with 2 different behaviors. In environments with native Object.create, method knows how to handle second argument; in environments without native Object.create, it doesn't.
What are the practical implications?
Well, if there's some code (say, a third party script) that wants to use Object.create, it's rather reasonable for that code to do this:
if (Object.create) {
var child = Object.create(parent, properties);
}
— essentially assuming that if Object.create exists, it must conform to specs — accept second argument and add corresponding properties to an object.
But, with the above-mentioned shim, second argument is simply ignored. There's not even an indication of something going wrong differently. A silent failure, so to speak — something that's rather painful to detect and fix.
Can we do better? Yes. There are few solutions:
1) Notify user about inability to work with second argument
if (!Object.create) {
Object.create = function (o) {
if (arguments.length > 1) {
throw Error('second argument is not supported');
}
// ... proceed ...
};
}
2) Try to handle second argument:
if (!Object.create) {
Object.create = function (parent, properties) {
function F(){}
F.prototype = parent;
var obj = new F;
if (properties) {
// ... augment obj ...
}
return obj;
};
}
Note that "properties" is an object representing property descriptors, not just property names/values, and is something that's not very trivial to support (some things are not even possible, such as controlling enumerability of a property):
Object.create(parent, {
foo: {
value: 'bar',
writable: true
},
baz: {
get: function(){ return 'baz getter'; },
set: function(value){ return 'baz setter'; },
enumerable: true
}
});
Oh, and I almost forgot about another inconsistency where original shim doesn't take care of parent object being null.
var foo = Object.create(null);
This creates an object whose [[Prototype]] is null; in other words, object that doesn't inherit from anything, not even Object.prototype (which all native objects in ECMAScript inherit from).
foo.toString; // undefined
foo.constructor; // undefined
// etc.
This is, by the way, useful to create "proper" hash tables in ECMAScript.
It's possible to emulate this behavior, but only using non-standard extensions, such as "magical" __proto__ property (so implementation would be not very portable or robust). Solution to this problem is similar: either emulate ES5 implementation fully, or notify about inconsistency/failure.