Re: what does @ in code comments mean?

From:

Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:58:23 -0700 (PDT)

Message-ID:

<c5c25f34-4537-483f-9e4e-f3d9f9f23abd@q16g2000yqg.googlegroups.com>

On Mar 24, 3:54 pm, "ACompetitorsChalle...@gmail.com"
<ACompetitorsChalle...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have this code comment and was uncertain it's comprehensive
meaning...
    /**
     * Singleton access method.
     *
     * @return Singleton
     */
I just learned what the Singleton Design pattern means :
how multiple objects can share a common object without having to know
if it already exists

but what does this comment line refer to ?
@return Singleton
I also see @param in my code also.. what does the @ mean here?

what do these comments mean ? are they signifigant?
or does it means something simple like this.instance at runtime?...

These are Javadoc comments,
<http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/javadoc/
index.html>
and the "@" signifies Javadoc tags in them.
<http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/solaris/
javadoc.html#javadoctags>

These tags cause certain information to be included in the Javadocs.

I recommend java.sun.com as the first place to look for all knowledge
Java.

--
Lew