THE Java™ Programming Language, Fourth Edition

Chapter 19. Documentation Comments

	Any member introducing a dog into the Society's premises shall be liable to a fine of £10. Any animal leading a blind person shall be deemed to be a cat.
	--Rule 46, Oxford Union Society (circa 1997)

Documentation comments, usually called doc comments, let you associate reference documentation for programmers directly with your code. The contents of the doc comment can be used to generate reference documentation, typically presented using HTML.

Doc comments are generally designed as fairly terse reference documentation. The reference documentation typically covers the contract of the documented interface, class, constructor, method, or field to the level of detail most programmers need. This approach is distinct ...