Extending prototypes in Javascript - good way?

In general your approach will work but a better approach will be to replace:

Child.prototype = new Parent;

with:

Child.prototype = Object.create(Parent.prototype);

This way you don't need to call new Parent, which is somewhat an anti-pattern. You could also define new properties directly as follows:

Child.prototype = Object.create(Parent.prototype, {
  setPosition: {
    value: function() {
      //... etc
    },
    writable: true,
    enumerable: true,
    configurable: true
  }
});

Hope this helps.

Object.create() at MDN

Your approach it is a good pure JavaScript approach. The only get away from tipping "Child.prototype" every time is to put it in a reference variable.

Like:

  var children = Child.prototype;
  children.init = function(){ /*/someoverridecode*/}

But you are still doing the Child.prototype behind this. You can also define a function that does this for you, see bind of underscore, maybe it suits your needs.

Cheers

I may get deep fried for this suggestion as there are several articles that can argue against some practices in my example, but this has worked for me and works well for clean looking code, stays consistent, minifies well, operates in strict mode, and stays compatible with IE8.

I also like utilizing the prototype methodology (rather than all of the 'extend' or 'apply' styles you see everywhere).

I write out my classes like this. Yes, it looks a lot like an OOP language which you didn't want, but it still adheres to the prototypical model while holding similarities to other familiar languages which makes projects easier to navigate.

This is my style I prefer :) I'm not saying it's the best, but it's so easy to read.

(function(ns) {

  var Class = ns.ClassName = function() {

  };

  Class.prototype = new baseClass();
  Class.constructor = Class;
  var _public = Class.prototype;
  var _private = _public._ = {};

  Class.aClassProperty = "aValue";

  Class.aClassMethod = function(params) {

  }

  _public.aMethod = function(params) {
      _private.myMethod.call(this, "aParam");
      Class.aClassMethod("aParam");
  }

  _private.myMethod = function(params) {

  }

})({});

EDIT:

I went ahead and converted your example this style just to show you what it would look like:

var namespace = {};

(function(ns) {

    var Class = ns.Parent = function() {

    };

    var _public = Class.prototype;
    var _private = _public._ = {};

    _public.init = function() {
        this.name = "anon";
    }

    _public.initWithParameters = function(parameters) {
        this.name = parameters.name ? parameters.name : "anon";
    }

    _public.talk = function() {
        console.log('Parent is: ' + this.name);
    }

})(namespace);

(function(ns) {

    var Class = ns.Child = function() {
        this.position = {x:0, y:0};
    };

    Class.prototype = new ns.Parent();
    Class.constructor = Class;
    var _public = Class.prototype;
    var _private = _public._ = {};

    _public.init = function() {
        _public.init.call(this);
        this.setPosition(0, 0);
    }

    _public.initWithParameters = function(parameters) {
        _public.initWithParameters.call(this, parameters);
        this.setPosition(parameters.pos.x, parameters.pos.y);
    }

    _public.setPosition = function(x, y) {
        this.position.x = x;
        this.position.y = y;
    }

    _public.talk = function() {
        console.log('Child is: ' + this.name + ' and location is: ' + this.position.x + ', ' + this.position.y);
    }

})(namespace);