Javadoc documentation??

[Bruce Xu]

hey,ranchers:
Do we need to generate the javadoc documentation for private classes and methods?
In my B&S specification, it says:
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Awkward or complex code should have descriptive comments, and javadoc style comments must be used for each element of the public interface of each class. You must create a full suite of documentation for the classes of the completed project. This must be generated using the tool "javadoc" and must be in HTML format. Provide javadoc documentation for all classes you write.
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and it also says:
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A subdirectory called javadoc, containing HTML/Javadoc documentation for all classes and interfaces you are submitting.
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thanks in advance

[Jeroen T Wenting]

It's not stricly required, but I do write it anyway.

I write Javadoc for pretty much everything (including some class member variables) and have ANT set to generate for protected and more public only.

That should suffice the requirements (in fact it goes over them) as well as showing best practice (and working for the maintainability of the code, which depends on good documentation and coding style, which IMO includes complete developer documentation of private methods as well).

For the Javadoc style to follow, read the style guides and the JDK Javadoc.
There are conventions to be followed for things like the order in which exceptions are listed in Javadoc comments for example, which I'd not seen before.