It seems there are several distinct problems: 1) The page https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String right now doesn't show the methods that String instances inherit from String.prototype. This is most likely a symptom of this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=859169 The bug mentions how the problem can be temporarily fixed for any page, but it will recur each time the page is edited.
2) All the constructor pages have links "Properties of XXX instances" linking to the prototype page. This is wrong - properties of a prototype are not properties of instances. 3) Related to that, some properties are documented as part of the wrong object. For example, the String.prototype documentation shows a length property. String.prototype doesn't have this property; String instances do. 4) Maintaining a separate prototype page is a bit tedious to authors. See Tom's email. I think any changes need to maintain (or actually create) a clear distinction between the properties of constructor, prototype, and instances. Which object a property belongs to is fundamental to software design in JavaScript, and without correct information developers will have a hard time getting their software to work. It's not necessary to express that distinction through separate pages though. Norbert On Apr 22, 2013, at 12:04 , Eric Shepherd wrote: > Currently, the JavaScript reference content for the global classes (String, > Array, etc), are divided up such that the class methods and properties and > the prototype methods and properties are documented separately, with links > between them. For example, see: > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String > > > and > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/prototype > > > While this might make sense to super-expert JavaScript folks (indeed, it was > their idea to do it this way), it's actually really confusing to everyone > else. > > I'd like to propose we merge them back together, so that the stuff currently > documented on the "prototype" page is in the main body of the class's > documentation where most people would expect it to be. If useful, we can come > up with a badge to put next to items that are part of the prototype (or not) > to differentiate between them. > > But the current organization is, well, kind of weird. > > Any opinions on this pro or con before we actually try to find someone to do > the work? > > -- > Eric Shepherd > Developer Documentation Lead > Mozilla > Blog: http://www.bitstampede.com/ > Twitter: @sheppy > > _______________________________________________ > dev-platform mailing list > dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform _______________________________________________ dev-platform mailing list dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform
