Annotated Underscore.js Source Code – Good for Budding JavaScript Developers | Hacker News Reader

Annotated Underscore.js Source Code – Good for Budding JavaScript Developers

underscorejs.org

52 pointsbootcat16 comments

I love the annotated source code, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend the Underscore library code itself as learning material to budding developers - it's optimised for size and performance, not legibility and idiomatic style. I remember being a budding JS dev once upon a time, and being quite perplexed by it :)

I quite agree that it's grown a bit gnarled and tangled with optimizations over the years.

It's interesting to compare the current version to the earliest available copy of the annotated source code, from version 1.1.1, seven years ago, in a simpler JavaScript age:

https://cdn.rawgit.com/jashkenas/underscore/1.1.1/docs/under...

I've learned a lot from reading your underscore.js source code.

For me, I started by reading and understanding the raw commented source code from the first release (without the initialization wrapper and initially confusing module setup): http://cdn.rawgit.com/jashkenas/underscore/f4299d7427abc59bc...

Then I had an easier time following the annotated version after understanding how the other functions were built on top of each other in the simpler syntax.

Wow, time flies and things get better with revision usually,

Would you happened to recall what projects/Etudes help you develop your programming skills? Asking for a friend

Also interesting, even if it has become unfashionable these days, Backbone's annotated source: http://backbonejs.org/docs/backbone.html

And the tool to make these: http://ashkenas.com/docco/

Amazing, to know about docco !!

For beginners annotated code of highly optimized library might become confusing. Try reading Mary Rose Cook's annotated code of 2 JS games and a Git clone http://annotated-code.maryrosecook.com/

Probably a bit long in the tooth now:

http://robflaherty.github.io/jquery-annotated-source/

Line 6: Naked function reference for surrogate-prototype-swapping. var Ctor = function(){};

TIL Ctor is short for constructor (?)

Very nice! Even those of us who don't consider ourselves "budding" have plenty to learn here.

Feel the same !

How did you go about creating this? I think it's super useful way of documenting code in general!

It's written with Docco, a tool created by Jeremy Ashkenas. It's used in docs of his other projects, such as CoffeeScript and Backbone, too.

http://ashkenas.com/docco/

Look at docco comment above ! Just learnt myself !

This is amazingly helpful. Thank you for posting!

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