Non-static method mysqli::init() cannot be called statically

http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli.init.php

$ConnectionResource = mysqli::init();

The above code fails with:

Fatal error: Non-static method mysqli::init() cannot be cal开发者_运维知识库led statically

How come?

that's just stupid notation used in the manual, obviously they use class->property and class::method without regard for the actual language and its distinction between instance- and class-member access (-> vs. ::). see example 1 at http://www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.real-connect.php