diff --git a/test/views/test_helpers.clj b/test/views/test_helpers.clj
index 9a82577..dc82c72 100644
--- a/test/views/test_helpers.clj
+++ b/test/views/test_helpers.clj
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@
     (and view
          (satisfies? IView view))))
 
+; the purpose of this function is to compare collections when the order of the elements
+; is not important, but there could be duplicates (so a set is not being used). some of
+; the operations we test are asynchronous with multiple threads performing the same
+; operation simultaneously, so at times our tests that record these operations being done
+; could end up with collections of items that are out of order between test runs.
+; this is not a problem or bug in views, but just a consequence of the multithreaded
+; operation of the library.
 (defn contains-only?
   [coll elements]
   (and (= (count coll)
@@ -27,12 +34,17 @@
         (:namespace view-sig)
         (:parameters view-sig)))
 
+; the 200 being used is just a number i pulled out of thin air that "felt good"
+
 (defn wait-for-refresh-views []
   (Thread/sleep 200))
 
 (defn wait-for-refresh-interval [options]
   (Thread/sleep (+ 200 (:refresh-interval options))))
 
+; this is kind of a hack, but necessary for some tests where we want to inspect
+; the items being sent to the refresh queue without worker threads picking out
+; the added items almost instantly.
 (defn stop-refresh-worker-threads []
   (swap! view-system assoc :stop-workers? true)
   (doseq [^Thread t (:workers @view-system)]