From http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop.php:

Note:  In PHP 4, only constant initializers for var  variables are allowed. To initialize variables with non-constant values, you need an initialization function which is called automatically when an object is being constructed from the class. Such a function is called a constructor (see below). 

i am not in the class,
the whole file contains only
<?php
static $m=1|2;
?>

hmm, not so sure if this is expected or a bug, Andi?

Derick

Any expression or function call, doesn't work with a static declaration. It's documented through the user notes at:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.scope.php
posting by "tomek at pluton dot pl".

It does IMO deserve proper documentation, because downloadable docs, don't contain the user notes.

This bug has been fixed in CVS.

In case this was a PHP problem, snapshots of the sources are packaged
every three hours; this change will be in the next snapshot. You can
grab the snapshot at http://snaps.php.net/.
 
In case this was a documentation problem, the fix will show up soon at
http://www.php.net/manual/.

In case this was a PHP.net website problem, the change will show
up on the PHP.net site and on the mirror sites in short time.
 
Thank you for the report, and for helping us make PHP better.

I added a note with an example to the docs, which should 
clarify the behaviour of static vars when values are assigned 
to them.