I have been programming with OOP languages for over 10 years but I'm learning JavaScript now and it's the first time I've encountered prototype-based inheritance. I tend to learn fastest by studying good code. What's a well-written example of a JavaScript application (or library) that properly uses prototypal inheritance? And can you describe (briefly) how/where prototypal inheritance is used, so I know where to start reading?
Douglas Crockford has a nice page on JavaScript Prototypal Inheritance:
Five years ago I wrote Classical Inheritance in JavaScript. It showed that JavaScript is a class-free, prototypal language, and that it has sufficient expressive power to simulate a classical system. My programming style has evolved since then, as any good programmer's should. I have learned to fully embrace prototypalism, and have liberated myself from the confines of the classical model.
Dean Edward's Base.js, Mootools's Class or John Resig's Simple Inheritance works are ways to do classical inheritance in JavaScript.