Javadoc for all or public classes?

"...and javadoc style comments must be used for each element of the public interface of each class."

"Provide javadoc documentation for all classes you write."

And under deliverables:
"A subdirectory called javadoc, containing HTML/Javadoc documentation for all classes and interfaces you are submitting. "

So which is it???

Javadoc for all or public?

I was going to do it for everything (private classes and methods) but it's driving me insane, so I want to check if it's necessary to write javadocs for everything??

Originally posted by Brian Kelly:
"...and javadoc style comments must be used for each element of the public interface of each class."

"Provide javadoc documentation for all classes you write."

And under deliverables:
"A subdirectory called javadoc, containing HTML/Javadoc documentation for all classes and interfaces you are submitting. "

So which is it???

Javadoc for all or public?

I was going to do it for everything (private classes and methods) but it's driving me insane, so I want to check if it's necessary to write javadocs for everything??

Javadoc all classes default, protected and public (class descriptions) and at least all public methods of each class. I provided javadoc for the protected members and methods as well. I dont think there is any need to javadoc private menbers and methods, as users of you class should not know this information anyway. Maybe regular comments for these would be fine.

Regards,
Mark.

Thanks. Sounds sensible!

Do I need to add comments in front of the class definition to explain why that class is created?

BTW, most of my class variables are private. Should I leave them uncommented?

Originally posted by Zhixiong Pan:
BTW, most of my class variables are private. Should I leave them uncommented?

Zhixiong you should have javadoc comments explaining what the purpose of each class is. For private variables you shouls still comment them with at least a one line regular comment explaining what each is for.

Mark

Mark, I agree with you. And how about comments for a class to explain the motivation of creating that class.

What about implemenation of interfaces, do I have to add a comment to the public methods ?

For Example the the DBAccess interface defines the comments, do I have to add to an extra comment in Data class ?

Tim

I don't think so. The comments given by Sun can be enough.