PHP5 Static Object Function Issue

I believe there is small problem in PHP5 with regard to static functions in uninstanced classes. From discussions in various php irc channels and what I've read about it in the docs, I can not call a static function in an uninstanced class via a variable. For example: $class = "MyClass"; $instance = new $class(); works, but $class = "MyClass"; $instance = $class::getInstance(); doesnt, where $instance = MyClass::getInstance(); does. I know that some people might consider it poor design, but basically I'm trying to dynamically reference singleton patterned classes using getInstance to internally create an object instance and use that instance for all processing. As of right now it doesn't seem that it is possible. Is there a reason why it's not supported? Will it be supported in the future? Gavin