Isn't this a typo error?

Question

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/IandI/override.html
Here's some code that's been posted on here before:
public class Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The class method in Animal.");
    public void testInstanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("The instance method in Animal.");
public class Cat extends Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The class method in Cat.");
    public void testInstanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("The instance method in Cat.");
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Cat myCat = new Cat();
        Animal myAnimal = myCat;
        Animal.testClassMethod();
        myAnimal.testInstanceMethod();
}Based on what that lesson was trying to teach shouldn't the line
Animal.testClassMethod();be written as
myAnimal.testClassMethod();???

Answer 1

I didn't ignore this thread, just took a rest as it was late for me, sorry. Thx for the replies. However, what you've replied I've no problem in understanding. I get the point that instances of a class belong to an object whereas members of a class belong to the class. It's just that I thought the author of that lesson meant the line
Animal.testClassMethod();to be
myAnimal.testClassMethod();My reasoning was the topic of the lesson itself, "Overriding and Hiding Methods". An important point of that lesson is the following:
The distinction between hiding and overriding has important implications. The version of the overridden method that gets invoked is the one in the subclass. The version of the hidden method that gets invoked depends on whether it is invoked from the superclass or the subclass. Let's look at an example that contains two classes.As a reader at this point I'm thinking the author is going to demonstrate the above quote with the following two classes
public class Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The class method in Animal.");
    public void testInstanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("The instance method in Animal.");
public class Cat extends Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The class method in Cat.");
    public void testInstanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("The instance method in Cat.");
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Cat myCat = new Cat();
        Animal myAnimal = myCat;
        Animal.testClassMethod();
        myAnimal.testInstanceMethod();
}Well, how does the line "Animal.testClassMethod();" demonstrate the above quote? It doesn't. It simply makes a direct call to a static method using its full name. It has nothing at all to do with objects, so yes, if you remove the other three lines in main() this one still works. Now if you change that line to "myAnimal.testClassMethod();" it still calls the static method from the superclass! But why? Afterall "myAnimal" holds a reference to a Cat! And so the line from the above quote,
The version of the hidden method that gets invoked depends on whether it is invoked from the superclass or the subclass.rings in my mind. So, overall I'm thinking there's a typo here and that the author meant "myAnimal.testClassMethod();". Well? I'm just being curious.