[Vala] VAPI Question - Static Methods

[Steven Oliver <oliver steven gmail com>]

How do you determine whether or not a method should be static when writing
vapis? Even if you just look at simple examples, like a max and min
functions for a type (eg. short, long, int) versus the clamp function or
the to_string function. The first two are static and second two are not.
What's the difference?

Steven N. Oliver