Section 8.1.2 of the
Java Language Specification states, "Member interfaces ... are always implicitly static..."
Ref:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/jTOC.doc.html Because they're implicitly static, nested interfaces can be implemented
without an instance of the enclosing class. (Top-level interfaces are another matter. I don't see that "static" would have any meaning in that context.)
[ December 02, 2004: Message edited by: marc weber ]