diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/javac.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/javac.html
index 6e49b4d92..c059cc349 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/javac.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/javac.html
@@ -239,8 +239,12 @@ invoking the compiler.</p>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">optimize</td>
-    <td valign="top">Indicates whether source should be compiled with
-      optimization; defaults to <code>off</code>.</td>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Indicates whether source should be compiled with
+      optimization; defaults to <code>off</code>. <strong>Note</strong>
+      that this flag is just ignored by Sun's <code>javac</code> starting
+      with JDK 1.3 (since compile-time optimization is unnecessary).
+    </td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>