What (basically) does views/includes/plugins.inc line 9 views_include('base') actually do? I ran into an issue today where I started getting the following white screen of death error:


  PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined function views_include() in /*/sites/all/modules/views/includes/plugins.inc on line 9


I found several various bug reports and questions with similar errors. Some said it was a bug in views, some said it was a bug in VBO, and some reported it being issues with a specific module (like finder) none of which am I really concerned about. 

My question is, since most of the solutions had to do with either commenting or uncommenting a particular line. Line 9 in views/views/includes/plugins.inc views_include('base'), what does this line actually do? Furthermore, what is the harm/benefit of having it commented or uncommented?

For my personal part, I was able to comment out the line (which cleared the error) then clear my cache and uncomment the line without the error returning, which seems awfully bizarre.  

I the code is generally something with including (libraries/functions?) for views plugins, but further explanation would be much appreciated.
From views.module:

/**
 * Include views .inc files as necessary.
 */
function views_include($file) {
  static $used = array();
  if (!isset($used[$file])) {
    require_once './' . drupal_get_path('module', 'views') . "/includes/$file.inc";
  }

  $used[$file] = TRUE;
}


so to your question, it is trying to load up base.inc out of the Views module includes directory.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the views module itself doesn't appear to be loading up (and thus defining the function to begin with).