Author's name question

[salam5]

Hi, I hope this isn't too basic for you guys. I co-author a blog using php and I've never done any programming of any kind. I'm getting better, but I have a question regarding implementation of individual author names.
In the post template there is a note saying:
<!-- uncomment the "by <?php the_author(); ?> to put the author's name on the post -->

and then in the actual program it says:
<!-- "by <?php the_author(); ?> --></small>
<div class="entry">

I don't understand uncomment or the "by. How should I do this?

thanks for any help. again, sorry if this is too basic for this forum.

[erothchild]

The "By" is just text that shows up with a querry after it.  Can you post more of the code for me?