Why execute() replaced perform() in Struts

Recently a friend of mine asked me why the "perform()" method in Struts was replaced with the "execute()" method?
A closed look at the signatures of the two methods revealed that the "execute()" method throws java.lang.Exception whereas the old "perform()" method throws IOException and ServletException.

This new execute method was necessary because of this reason. Due to the declarative exception handling that has been added,the framework needs to catch all instances of java.lang.Exception from theAction class.
Instead of changing the method signature for the perform() method and breakingbackwards compatibility, the execute() method was added.

Currently, the execute() method just turns around and invokes the perform() method anyway.