Prototypes play a central role in programming for the web (that is, in JavaScript), but the meaning and utility of the concept is general and fairly simple. Here is an explanation that does not involve programming.

However, prototype structure is not usually saved to external files in JavaScript programming, but rather rebuilt each time needed in a fashion custom to the application. PrototypeJungle is based on a new technique (the prototype tree) which enables saving the prototype aspects of JavaScript items in an application-independent way.