Empty init() methods

Question

I am currently working on and cleaning up (old) Java servlet code that I inherited from another collegue. In a lot of the servlets, I find empty init() methods like:
public void init() {
}As a novice to Java servlets, I have just been reading the First Edition of Jason Hunter's 'Java Servlet Programming' book. There, on page 59 it is stated that every servlet's init() method should call super.init(config) as its first action. I was wondering if I could simply remove the empty init() methods that I encounter in the servlets... If i remove them, the init() method of the superclass will get called... and the behaviour of the superclass init() might be slightly different than an emtpy init() method... isn't it? But I wonder if it will make a big deal for my application...
Are there any possible side effects to expect here? What could probably happen if remove the empty init() methods and consequently start using the init() method from the superclass?

Answer 1

OK. Yesterday, I cleaned up all empty init() methods, now it's time for cleaning up all unnecessary init(ServletConfig cfg) methods. In the servlet code that i inherited from a collegue, I find a lot of servlets containing the following:
    public void init(ServletConfig cfg) throws ServletException {
        super.init(cfg);
    }In the meanwhile, i know that we are using Tomcat 5.5 as a container, so I looked into the Tomcat HttpServlet implementation and I found no init(ServletConfig cfg). I then looked at GenericServlet where i found:
    public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException {
        this.config = config;
        this.init();
    }and since the init() method also doesn't do much, i think i can safely remove all
    public void init(ServletConfig cfg) throws ServletException {
        super.init(cfg);
    }methods in our own servlets... since what they do is actually just the same as the init(ServletConfig cfg) method from GenericServlet.
Can somebody who is more experienced in Java Servlets than me confirm?
Thanks!
Bart