Ofcourse you're not using "static members of a null variable". Static members are at the class level, not at the instance level. A static member does not belong to any specific instance, but to a class.
In my opinion, it should have been illegal in
Java to call static methods on an instance (or on a reference variable, whether it is null or not). Calling static members on an instance is confusing and I don't know any reason why it would be necessary to have this as a feature in the language.
We often have questions in the forums from people who don't understand that static methods are not polymorphic. One of the reasons people get confused about this is because it's possible to call static methods on instances.
Always call static methods on the class, not on an instance:
[ April 18, 2007: Message edited by: Jesper Young ]