Whenever I explore a new library or framework, I have a hard time jumping into exceptionally 'automagical' code without a quick glance at the source files. I generally trust that the functions work, but I like to be able to have a general understanding of how.

Even in widely-used frameworks like Rails, few end-to-end function explanations exist. I understand there's likely very little demand, though I'd find it more interesting than some tech blogs.

But when exploring Backbone.js for the first time, I stumbled upon a project by Jeremy Ashkenas, an fully annotated copy of the Backbone source code. I loved that idea, I like silly names, and I'm a big fan of the Oxford comma, so I created 'Mini-Source Island.''

Since I was doing the research anyway, I figured I'd share what I found. Sometimes the descriptions are abbreviated; I don't dig much deeper than what an intermediate-level developer might find interesting. The goal is to make the 'automagical' code feel a little less like a black box, and to highlight what incredible tools the open-source community builds.

I hope you enjoy!