Can someone explain the "debounce" function in Javascript

Question

I am interested in the "debouncing" function in javascript, written here : http://davidwalsh.name/javascript-debounce-function

Unfortunately the code is not explained clearly enough for me to understand. Can anyone help me figure out how it works (I left my comments below). In short I just really do not understand how this works

   // Returns a function, that, as long as it continues to be invoked, will not
   // be triggered. The function will be called after it stops being called for
   // N milliseconds.


function debounce(func, wait, immediate) {
    var timeout;
    return function() {
        var context = this, args = arguments;
        var later = function() {
            timeout = null;
            if (!immediate) func.apply(context, args);
        };
        var callNow = immediate && !timeout;
        clearTimeout(timeout);
        timeout = setTimeout(later, wait);
        if (callNow) func.apply(context, args);
    };
};

EDIT: The copied code snippet previously had callNow in the wrong spot.

Answer 1

The code in the question was altered slightly from the code in the link. In the link, there is a check for (immediate && !timeout) BEFORE creating a new timout. Having it after causes immediate mode to never fire. I have updated my answer to annotate the working version from the link.

function debounce(func, wait, immediate) {
  // 'private' variable for instance
  // The returned function will be able to reference this due to closure.
  // Each call to the returned function will share this common timer.
  var timeout;

  // Calling debounce returns a new anonymous function
  return function() {
    // reference the context and args for the setTimeout function
    var context = this,
      args = arguments;

    // Should the function be called now? If immediate is true
    //   and not already in a timeout then the answer is: Yes
    var callNow = immediate && !timeout;

    // This is the basic debounce behaviour where you can call this 
    //   function several times, but it will only execute once 
    //   [before or after imposing a delay]. 
    //   Each time the returned function is called, the timer starts over.
    clearTimeout(timeout);

    // Set the new timeout
    timeout = setTimeout(function() {

      // Inside the timeout function, clear the timeout variable
      // which will let the next execution run when in 'immediate' mode
      timeout = null;

      // Check if the function already ran with the immediate flag
      if (!immediate) {
        // Call the original function with apply
        // apply lets you define the 'this' object as well as the arguments 
        //    (both captured before setTimeout)
        func.apply(context, args);
      }
    }, wait);

    // Immediate mode and no wait timer? Execute the function..
    if (callNow) func.apply(context, args);
  }
}

/////////////////////////////////
// DEMO:

function onMouseMove(e){
  console.clear();
  console.log(e.x, e.y);
}

// Define the debounced function
var debouncedMouseMove = debounce(onMouseMove, 50);

// Call the debounced function on every mouse move
window.addEventListener('mousemove', debouncedMouseMove);