Java All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 8

Packaging and Documenting Your Classes

In This Chapter

Creating packages for your classes

Archiving your packages in JAR files

Documenting your classes with JavaDocs

This chapter shows you what to do with the classes you create. Specifically, I show you how to organize classes into neat packages. Packages enable you to keep your classes separate from classes in the Java API, allow you to reuse your classes in other applications, and even let you distribute your classes to others, assuming other people might be interested in your classes. If that's the case, you probably won't want to send those people all your separate class files. Instead, bundle them into a single file called a JAR file. That's covered in this chapter too.

Finally, you find out how to use a feature called JavaDocs that lets you add documentation comments to your classes. With JavaDocs, you can build professional-looking documentation pages automatically. Your friends will think you're a real Java guru when you post your JavaDoc pages to your website.

Working with Packages

A package is a group of classes that belong together. Without packages, the entire universe of Java classes would be a huge, unorganized ...