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General Program Documentation

Whether you place your documentation in a separate word document, an ASCII text file, or include it in the comment block at the start of your Java source code, the following should always be included:

First, a statement of purpose. What does this program do? Who is the target user? Does this program have a fancy algorithm, or is it "common" for that dicipline (i.e. an accounting program would probably use "common" accounting algorigthms). This can be as short as one or two sentences, and as long as a paragraph or two.

Second, a list of ALL classes and for each class, ALL methods that have been written. For each class and method, a one-line statement of purpose (what does it do).

Finally, a variable dictionary for each class, listing all class and instance variables, their data type and their purpose.

Except for the statement of purpose, the documentation should be point form, and as concise as possible (while still conveying the essential information).

GoodDocs.java is a small program illustrating good documentation practices.
 

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