Htykuut

I am trying to comprehend the importance of Prototype Inheritance in Javascript

Consider this function Constructor

function Person(first, last, age, eyecolor) {

    this.firstName = first;

    this.lastName = last;

    this.age = age;

    this.eyeColor = eyecolor;

}

Based on my vaguely understanding of how prototype works..

The JavaScript prototype property allows you to add new properties to object constructors:

So the following code

Person.prototype.nationality = "English";

This will probably change my function constructor behind the scene to something like this?

function Person(first, last, age, eyecolor) {

    this.firstName = first;

    this.lastName = last;

    this.age = age;

    this.eyeColor = eyecolor;

    this.nationality = "English"

}

And hence whenever I create a new object, it will have access to nationality

var newPerson = new Person ("John", "Hapkins", "23", "black")

console.log(newPerson.nationality)  //English

//To change nationality for just newPerson

newPerson.nationality = "German"

This is all cool, but I am unable to figure out the importance of prototype here?

Like wouldn't it be a better practise if we just add the new properties directly where we declare function constructor? instead of adding them using prototype?