Static class variables and $this

Can someone point me to some more information on using PHP 5's static class variables? All I have been able to find is the zend php5 changes page. Consider: error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT); class foo { static $cnt = 0; function getCnt1() { return $this->cnt; } // Does not work, undefined variable function getCnt2() { return foo:$cnt; } // Works as expected } $obj = new foo(); echo $obj->getCnt1(); It seems that I should be able to access static class variables from inside of created objects using $this. Tested with php5b3.