Why is the Java main method static?

Question

The method signature of a Java main() method is:

public static void main(String[] args){
    ...
}

Is the

Answer 1

main() is static because; at that point in the application's lifecycle, the application stack is procedural in nature due to there being no objects yet instantiated.

It's a clean slate. Your application is running at this point, even without any objects being declared (remember, there's procedural AND OO coding patterns). You, as the developer, turn the application into an object-oriented solution by creating instances of your objects and depending upon the code compiled within.

Object-oriented is great for millions of obvious reasons. However, gone are the days when most VB developers regularly used keywords like "goto" in their code. "goto" is a procedural command in VB that is replaced by its OO counterpart: method invocation.

You could also look at the static entry point (main) as pure liberty. Had Java been different enough to instantiate an object and present only that instance to you on run, you would have no choice BUT to write a procedural app. As unimaginable as it might sound for Java, it's possible there are many scenarios which call for procedural approaches.

This is probably a very obscure reply. Remember, "class" is only a collection of inter-related code. "Instance" is an isolated, living and breathing autonomous generation of that class.