Why Clone Method is Protected in Object class

[Shailesh Deshpande]

Hi,

Will nay one tell me why clone mthod is having protected signature? By this
access level, I can not clone the objects in another packages.

Please reply to this question if anyone knows it. Thanx in advance.

Shailesh

[MarkN]

I don't know for sure but read the comments on the clone method in the Object
class. You can always add your own method that calls clone.

[Allan Neoh]

IMHO, protected would give a choice for subclasses whether
to expose clone() or not. I hope this makes sense. Not everything
is cloneable.

Cheers