-/* get attributes by name. If verbose is not 0, get_a writes a string
- * into atts of the form 'att1="0",att2="1"', which is used in com_cam
- * for contructing a mysql update query.
- * never returns NULL in *NON VERBOSE* mode
+/*
+ * get attributes by name. If verbose is not 0, this function returns a string
+ * of the form 'att1="0",att2="1"'... which is used in com_cam() for
+ * constructing a mysql update query. Otherwise the space-separated list of all
+ * attributes which are set in the audio file given by name is returned. Never
+ * returns NULL in *NON VERBOSE* mode.