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Static methods don't appear to be common in the web platform. A quick grep of WebKit IDL files show that only 3 classes have static methods. I propose that the 'static' keyword be removed.
static is a relatively new addition to WebIDL and the platform to avoid singleton objects that were used in the past. It has been used in some newer APIs such as File API [1] and IndexedDB [2]. Adding methods to the prototype is common in JavaScript (e.g. the methods on Array). Since it has already been added to the platform it seems appropriate to use it for its intended purpose. If we don't use new features because they are new they will never become common. [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/FileAPI/#creating-revoking [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/IndexedDB/
Ok. I'm fine with keeping this then. I was just looking around WebKit for examples and found very few so thought I should bring this up especially since HTMLMediaElement.canPlayType() is not static.