The Java language specification allows a dummy gc() method. Why?
<p>I've a hard time understanding the following:</p>

<p><b>
"The Java language specification allows a dummy gc() method."
</b></p>

<p>Why would the standard do this?<br>Its effectively making a very important feature of java <em>optional</em>.<br>This would also mean my same program will behave differently on two different JVM implementations !!! Something totally against Java's important feature of <em>portability</em>.</p>
