ES6类语法不为我们提供“经典”继承吗？

Question

I understand that in case of prototypal inheritance, the objects are linked together through a prototype chain. The inheritance is a "REFERENCE" to some other live object (instantiation).

Where as in case of class-based inheritance, classes (templates) are made to inculcate inheritance. Any sub-class instantiation "POSSESSES" an instance of a parent object.

But how does Javascript not implement "classical" inheritance with the ES6 syntax? With the ES6 class syntax, what you're doing is essentially creating templates. And upon the instantiation of an object, a separate live instance of the parent is made every time. Isn't this classical inheritance?

Answer 1

No, ES6 class syntax does not implement classical inheritance. The methods of the class are still placed on a .prototype object that is linked to the instances through prototypical inheritance.

There is no "templating" going on either. Attributes are not declared beforehand, the shape of instances is not fixed. They are just plain objects all along, and their properties get created in the constructor.

Answer 2

Yes, class is intended to behave like classes in other languages, thus it looks like "classical inheritance". Under the hood it is still prototypal inheritance though.

class Animal {}
class Human {}

const me = new Human;

Object.setPrototypeOf(me, Animal.prototype);
console.log(me instanceof Animal); // true