Discussion on: A Collection of JavaScript Tips Based on Common Areas of Confusion or Misunderstanding

[pentacular]

Let us consider a simple program.

const a = { size: 10 };
const b = a;
const aSize = a.size;
const bSize = b.size;

Now imagine an implementation of Javascript in Javascript, where objects are represented as numbers, and we have Get and Set methods.

We might represent the above like so.

const a = 0;
Set(a, "size", 10);
const b = a;
const aSize = Get(a, "size");
const bSize = Get(b, "size");

The value of the object is its identity, which enables us to access the object's properties.

Sharing this identity allows others to access the same properties.

So we don't need to talk about pointers or references -- we just need the object value and some way to use that to access the object's properties.

There's nothing special about numbers for object values in the example, it might as well have been strings, or dates, or anything that can provide an identity.

As for "under the hood", there isn't any -- unless you're assuming a particular implementation, in which case you're no-longer reasoning about the language, but some particular implementation of it.

If you come from a math background it should be natural to understand things in terms of relationships, rather than mechanics.