•Java keyword for belongs to
whole class rather than to an instance of the class
•Static things are rare, objects
are common: too
much static is bad design
•public static void main( )
–main() is a static method - it
can run before any objects are created with new
–TestShapes (like many testing
programs) is all static: there is a TestShapes class, but never
a TestShapes object (although
main uses objects