Source: reducers/nextState.js

/**
 * Creates the next state tree from the current state tree and some updates.
 *
 * N.B. OO.copy doesn't copy Element instances, whereas $.extend does.
 * However, OO.copy does copy properties whose values are undefined or null,
 * whereas $.extend doesn't. Since the state tree contains an Element instance
 * - the preview.activeLink property - and we want to copy undefined/null into
 * the state we need to manually iterate over updates and check with
 * hasOwnProperty to copy over to the new state.
 *
 * In [change listeners](/docs/change_listener.md), for example, we talk about
 * the previous state and the current state (the `oldState` and `newState`
 * parameters, respectively). Since
 * [reducers](http://redux.js.org/docs/basics/Reducers.html) take the current
 * state and an action and make updates, "next state" seems appropriate.
 *
 * @param {Object} state
 * @param {Object} updates
 * @return {Object}
 */
export default function nextState( state, updates ) {
	const hasOwn = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty,
		result = {};

	// Flat clone of everything that's not updated
	for ( const key in state ) {
		if ( hasOwn.call( state, key ) && !hasOwn.call( updates, key ) ) {
			result[ key ] = state[ key ];
		}
	}

	for ( const key in updates ) {
		if ( !hasOwn.call( updates, key ) ) {
			continue;
		}

		// Deep clone only if there is an update
		if ( isObject( updates[ key ] ) ) {
			const clone = state[ key ] ? nextState( {}, state[ key ] ) : {};
			// Recursion
			result[ key ] = nextState( clone, updates[ key ] );
		} else {
			result[ key ] = updates[ key ];
		}
	}

	return result;
}

/**
 * @param {*} obj
 * @return {boolean}
 */
function isObject( obj ) {
	// https://javascript.plainenglish.io/javascript-check-if-a-variable-is-an-object-and-nothing-else-not-an-array-a-set-etc-a3987ea08fd7
	return obj && obj.constructor === Object;
}