Poor documentation on JavaDoc

Question

I've been messing with JavaDoc for hours, and I'm not getting far with it. When I look at the J2SDK API, there is lots documented in the JavaDoc. However, when I make my javadoc comments and generate my javadocs, there are things missing. Some stuff works, but not others. For example, I can comment a method, and that shows up in the javadoc. However, I cannot comment the class and get that to show up, like the version info, copyright statement, etc.
I know you just have to have the right tags, and in the right order I guess, but the JavaDoc Tool Homepage stinks. If anyone can give me an example of a java source file that uses ALL of the important JavaDoc tags, the duke dollars are yours.
The JavaDoc tool homepage shows some stuff, and explains, but there are no examples, please help.

Answer 1

The @author, @version and @see tags all require arguments.
That's why you're not seeing anything in the output.
The example you are looking for is in this document:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/writingdoccomments/index.html#examples
       * Graphics is the abstract base class for all graphics contexts
       * which allow an application to draw onto components realized on
       * various devices or onto off-screen images.
       * A Graphics object encapsulates the state information needed
       * for the various rendering operations that Java supports.  This
       * state information includes:
       * <ul>
       * <li>The Component to draw on
       * <li>A translation origin for rendering and clipping coordinates
       * <li>The current clip
       * <li>The current color
       * <li>The current font
       * <li>The current logical pixel operation function (XOR or Paint)
       * <li>The current XOR alternation color
       *     (see <a href="#setXORMode">setXORMode</a>)
       * </ul>
       * <p>
       * Coordinates are infinitely thin and lie between the pixels of the
       * output device.
       * Operations which draw the outline of a figure operate by traversing
       * along the infinitely thin path with a pixel-sized pen that hangs
       * down and to the right of the anchor point on the path.
       * Operations which fill a figure operate by filling the interior
       * of the infinitely thin path.
       * Operations which render horizontal text render the ascending
       * portion of the characters entirely above the baseline coordinate.
       * <p>
       * Some important points to consider are that drawing a figure that
       * covers a given rectangle will occupy one extra row of pixels on
       * the right and bottom edges compared to filling a figure that is
       * bounded by that same rectangle.
       * Also, drawing a horizontal line along the same y coordinate as
       * the baseline of a line of text will draw the line entirely below
       * the text except for any descenders.
       * Both of these properties are due to the pen hanging down and to
       * the right from the path that it traverses.
       * <p>
       * All coordinates which appear as arguments to the methods of this
       * Graphics object are considered relative to the translation origin
       * of this Graphics object prior to the invocation of the method.
       * All rendering operations modify only pixels which lie within the
       * area bounded by both the current clip of the graphics context
       * and the extents of the Component used to create the Graphics object.
       * @author      Sami Shaio
       * @author      Arthur van Hoff
       * @version     %I%, %G%
       * @since       JDK1.0
      public abstract class Graphics {
           * Draws as much of the specified image as is currently available
           * with its northwest corner at the specified coordinate (x, y).
           * This method will return immediately in all cases, even if the
           * entire image has not yet been scaled, dithered and converted
           * for the current output device.
           * <p>
           * If the current output representation is not yet complete then
           * the method will return false and the indicated {@link ImageObserver}
           * object will be notified as the conversion process progresses.
           * @param img       the image to be drawn
           * @param x         the x-coordinate of the northwest corner of the
           *                  destination rectangle in pixels
           * @param y         the y-coordinate of the northwest corner of the
           *                  destination rectangle in pixels
           * @param observer  the image observer to be notified as more of the
           *                  image is converted.  May be <code>null</code>
           * @return          <code>true</code> if the image is completely
           *                  loaded and was painted successfully;
           *                  <code>false</code> otherwise.
           * @see             Image
           * @see             ImageObserver
           * @since           JDK1.0
          public abstract boolean drawImage(Image img, int x, int y,
                                            ImageObserver observer);
           * Dispose of the system resources used by this graphics context.
           * The Graphics context cannot be used after being disposed of.
           * While the finalization process of the garbage collector will
           * also dispose of the same system resources, due to the number
           * of Graphics objects that can be created in short time frames
           * it is preferable to manually free the associated resources
           * using this method rather than to rely on a finalization
           * process which may not happen for a long period of time.
           * <p>
           * Graphics objects which are provided as arguments to the paint
           * and update methods of Components are automatically disposed
           * by the system when those methods return.  Programmers should,
           * for efficiency, call the dispose method when finished using
           * a Graphics object only if it was created directly from a
           * Component or another Graphics object.
           * @see       #create
           * @see       #finalize
           * @see       Component#getGraphics
           * @see       Component#paint
           * @see       Component#update
           * @since     JDK1.0
          public abstract void dispose();
           * Disposes of this graphics context once it is no longer referenced.
           * @see       #dispose
           * @since     JDK1.0
          public void finalize() {
              dispose();
      }You're right, it would be good to include this example
in the Javadoc Reference page.
-Doug Kramer
Javadoc team