I think James Bennett's post on magic is interesting: http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/ http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/ In partic

I think James Bennett's post on magic is interesting: http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/ http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/ In particular, there is a comment[0] that I think is particularly worth reading: There are two different definitions of magic in play here. 1. The use of advanced language features in a manner that might be confusing to a novice programmer. 2. The use of ANY language feature to automate some process that a programmer would not expect to be automated. I am of the belief that the second is the proper definition, which is something that is not usually solved by reading sourcecode, as the question is "Why?", rather than "What?" or "How?". [0]: http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/#c118751 http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2009/jul/23/magic/#c118751