Redundant Access Modifier?

Hey there!
Well I just looked at the clone() method of the Object class. Now its access modifier is protected. But since every class is a subclass of Object then every class can access this method. So why not just make it public?
What am I missing?
Dan

Good question - here's what I came up with. Say I'm writing a class MyClass, and I want to be able to create copies of my instances, but I don't want anyone to use clone from outside MyClass. I might actually prefer that clone() were private - but if I want to use the default provided by Object, I obviously need to be able to inherit it. So protected is the most restrictive modifier I can have for this method. Now if I do in fact want other classes to be able to access my clone() method freely, I can certainly override clone() to be public in MyClass - but if it had been public in Object, then there would be no way I could make it more restrictive. This way at least I have a choice - I can make the method public or protected. It's not much of a choice, but it's something.

Okay - that makes sense. Thanks Sheriff!
Dan