Mod lines in Java code

Question

Often in C code (and some other languages as well) I have seen a section in the top-level comments for mod lines. These include the date a modification to the file was made, the user who made the modification, and a brief description of what was changed.

I have not yet seen an equivalent of this in Java. I think this information is useful, especially when trying to track down bugs in code I did not write. Is this because Java code is often under version control, or are there other reasons? Are there any suggestions as to how to include the information in the code file?

Answer 1

I see no reason to have those useless comments in any source file. Its just reinventing version control extremely poorly.

Answer 2

I've often seen Java files with a header including the original date created and the author, but not "mod lines". Version control would make that rather superfluous, as it tracks changes on a per-line basis by user.

As for why they're used in C, perhaps it's an old custom from before the days of VC.

Answer 3

Often in Java I see these types of lines, but it's not entered manually. Most VCSs can tag any text file with that data, as long as a template is left in the file to insert that information into.

For instance, in the VCS I use, if I include $Id: ... $ anywhere in the file, the ... will be replaced with the file name, version number, last editor, edit date, etc.

Some people think they're useless in light of VCSs (which store all of that information), but I don't. It's quick access to that information which you would have to mine for (or at least leave your file editor) by going through the VCS.

Edit: By the way, nobody's highlighted my main reason for disliking them (remember, I said they're not useless, not that I like them). I hate that they add textual changes to the file at each checkin. You either need a highly configurable diff client to ignore those changes, or you're faced with boilerplate changes at each revision which make it more cumbersome to see what actually changed.