THE Java™ Programming Language, Fourth Edition

(Jeff_L) #1

warning if it sees the @Deprecated annotation. You should always use the two together: Use the
@deprecated tag to document the reason for the deprecation, and use the @Deprecated annotation to
inform the compiler.


19.2.7. @author


The @author tag specifies an author of a class or interface.


@author Aristophanes
@author Ursula K. LeGuin
@author Ibid


You can specify as many @author paragraphs as you desire. You should use only one author per @author
paragraph to get consistent output in all circumstances.


19.2.8. @version


The @version tag lets you specify an arbitrary version specification for the class or interface.


@version 1.1


19.2.9. @since


The @since tag lets you specify an arbitrary version specification that denotes when the tagged entity was
added to your system.


@since 2.1


Tagging the "birth version" can help you track which entities are newer and therefore may need intensified
documentation or testing. By convention an @since tag on a class or interface applies to all members of the
class or interface that don't have their own @since tag. For example, if the above @since tag preceded a
class, then all constructors, fields, and methods of that class would be presumed to have been present in
version 2.1 except any that had, for example, an @since2.2 tag of its own.


19.2.10. {@literal} and {@code}


The {@literaltext} in-line tag causes text to be printed exactly as is, without being interpreted as
HTML source. This means that you can use &, <, and > rather than &, <, and >.


The {@codetext} in-line tag behaves exactly like {@literaltext} except that text is printed in
code font. You'd get the same effect wrapping the {@literaltext} tag in and
HTML tags.


These in-line tags are exceedingly convenient for writing about generic types.

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