I've been thinking about the continued use of prototypes in JavaScript and whether it might be beneficial to have an alternative without them, like a "use no_proto" directive or even a different language that could run in the browser. The optimization potential for web applications is significant, especially with frameworks like React striving for efficiency. Why don't we see any proposals from TC39 for a change in this area? I truly believe that removing prototypes could lead to a more efficient web, possibly boosting performance by up to 50%. Am I alone in this consideration?
3 Answers
JavaScript’s reliance on prototypes is largely for backwards compatibility. Changing that would disrupt the entire web as we know it! While modern engines optimize them, introducing a new language that compiles to JavaScript could address a lot of these issues in a fresh way.
Not sure I see prototypes as a major performance issue. As long as you're not altering them directly, most browsers handle optimization pretty well. If I were redesigning JavaScript, I might ditch prototypes, but after all this time, it’s tricky to change something so foundational without breaking existing sites.
Interesting thought on the efficiency boost! I'm curious where you got that 50% figure from, though. Prototypes are already optimized pretty well in modern JavaScript engines like V8. Plus, don’t forget about WebAssembly for those high-performance needs—it works well alongside JavaScript.
Totally agree! While V8 does a great job with prototypes, they're a workaround for an older design choice. Prototypes are dynamic and this limits how much optimization can be done. If we could have a switch for a more static structure, we could see some significant improvements.
That’s a fair point! But imagine if we could have something like a `"use newjs"` directive to signal a new version that offers more optimizations while keeping backwards compatibility. It seems doable, right?