[PHP] PHP 4 to 5 class issues involving static methods and $this

[Chris]

I have a class where I need to be able to use the methods as static  
methods as well as using them inside an initialized class.  Here's an  
example of what I need to do:

class my_class {
        var $elements = array(); // holds all of my elements
        function format_string($string) {
                // format the string...
                return $this->elements[] = $string;
        }
        function show_all() {
                return implode("\n", $this->elements);
        }
}
This worked fine in PHP 4.  It silently ignored the $this->elements[]  
assignment in statically called methods and just returned my formatted  
string without any fuss.  However, in PHP 5, I understand that I'm now  
required to declare the method format_string as public static if I want to  
just call my_class::format_string(), and if I want to use $elements inside  
a static method, it also requires being declared as static.  I also  
understand that I can't use $this inside a statically called method.  I've  
tried these things, but they don't seem to help.

How can I rewrite my class for PHP 5 to emulate the functionality I had in  
PHP 4 in an error free way?

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