JavaScript mixins - extending and super methods [closed]

Question

I've read a lot of stuff about mixins, inheritance and such, and in the end I came up with this solution for extending a class with multiple mixins. I haven't seen this anywhere else...

var Classes = {}; // I keep all classes inside this objects, so I can do new Classes[obj_name]();
Classes.asA = function () {
    var _init = this.init; // keep a copy of the previously declared method, if any
    this.init = function (a) {
        if (_init) _init.call(this, a); // call super method, if any
        this.a = a; // declare additional properties here
    }
    this.methodA = function () {
        console.log("a: "+this.a);
    }
}
Classes.asB = function () {
    var _init = this.init;
    this.init = function (a) {
        if (_init) _init.call(this, a);
        this.b = a+1;
    }
    this.methodB = function () {
        console.log("b: "+this.b);
    }
}
Classes.Obj = function () {
    var _init = this.init;
    this.init = function (a) {
        if (_init) _init.call(this, a);
        this.z = a-2;
    }
    this.methodZ = function () {
        console.log("z: "+this.z);
    }
}
Classes.asA.call(Classes.Obj.prototype); // extend Obj with asA
Classes.asB.call(Classes.Obj.prototype); // extend Obj with asB

var obj = new Classes.Obj();
obj.init(7); // will call in order asA.init, asB.init, Obj.init
obj.methodA(); // outputs "a: 7"
obj.methodB(); // outputs "b: 8"
obj.methodZ(); // outputs "z: 5"

Is this a good method? Do you see any problems with it?

Answer 1

The main things is that your system is much more verbose and harder to understand than simply hard-coding all the calls to superclass methods:

function A(a) {
    this.a = a;
}
A.prototype = {
    methodA: function () {
        console.log("a: "+this.a);
    }
};

function B(a) {
    this.b = a+1;
}
B.prototype = {
    methodB: function () {
        console.log("b: "+this.b);
    }
};

function Obj(a) {
    A.call(this, a);
    B.call(this, a);
    this.z = a-2;
}
// Using underscore.js extend() to mix in methods from A and B
Obj.prototype = _({
    methodZ: function () {
        console.log("z: "+this.z);
    }
}).extend(A.prototype, B.prototype);

var o = new Obj(7);
o.methodA();
o.methodB();
o.methodZ();

Instead you should have some sort of factory method that creates new classes for you, setting up the mixins behind the scenes. For example:

var Foo = createClass({
    mixins: [ClassA, ClassB],
    someMethod: function() { ... }
});

I suggest you study some existing libraries that implement their own JavaScript class systems. There are lots of nuances of the JS object model that you need to be aware of. I strongly suggest you don't use your own home-grown class-system for production, but instead adopt some already bettle-tested implementation. But writing you own is a good way to learn more deeply about JavaScript.