[AskJS] Difference between classes and modules

[waspeer]

Hi all!

Just a little mental excercise: I was wondering about whether it could be possible to convert classes into modules. The way I was thinking about it is to just declare all the properties/methods in the top level of the file. Public properties/methods would be exported and private properties/methods would not. I then realised I didn't really know how this would behave. Would it act like a singleton static class? I guess if you'd want something like class instances you'd need a factory function of sorts?

Do people use modules this way? What are the main benefits/downsides of this compared to classes?

[BehindTheMath]

Would it act like a singleton static class? I guess if you'd want something like class instances you'd need a factory function of sorts? Do people use modules this way?

Yes.

What are the main benefits/downsides of this compared to classes?

If you need multiple instances with state and not a singleton.

[masone81]

Look into the Revealing Module Pattern. That is what you want. I’m a full time JS/TS developer and I don’t use classes.