namespace Prototype
Description
The Prototype
namespace provides fundamental information about the
Prototype library you're using, as well as a central repository for default
iterators or functions.
We say "namespace," because the Prototype
object is not intended for
instantiation, nor for mixing in other objects. It's really just... a
namespace.
Your version of Prototype
Your scripts can check against a particular version of Prototype by
examining Prototype.Version
, which is a version String
(e.g.
"<%= PROTOTYPE_VERSION %>"). The famous
script.aculo.us library does this at load time to
ensure it's being used with a reasonably recent version of Prototype, for
instance.
Browser features
Prototype also provides a (nascent) repository of browser feature information, which it then uses here and there in its source code. The idea is, first, to make Prototype's source code more readable; and second, to centralize whatever scripting trickery might be necessary to detect the browser feature, in order to ease maintenance.
Default iterators and functions
Numerous methods in Prototype objects (most notably the Enumerable
module) let the user pass in a custom iterator, but make it optional by
defaulting to an "identity function" (an iterator that just returns its
argument, untouched). This is the Prototype.K
function, which you'll
see referred to in many places.
Many methods also take it easy by protecting themselves against missing
methods here and there, reverting to empty functions when a supposedly
available method is missing. Such a function simply ignores its potential
arguments, and does nothing whatsoever (which is, oddly enough,
blazing fast). The quintessential empty function sits, unsurprisingly,
at Prototype.emptyFunction
(note the lowercase first letter).
Namespaces
-
Prototype.Selector
A namespace that acts as a wrapper around the choosen selector engine (Sizzle by default).
-
Prototype.Browser
A collection of Boolean values indicating the browser which is currently in use. Available properties are
IE
,Opera
,WebKit
,MobileSafari
andGecko
. -
Prototype.BrowserFeatures
A collection of Boolean values indicating the presence of specific browser features.