Stefan Koopmanschap has posted about static methods and comparing "static public" to "public static" (including a popularity graph).

Ever since starting with PHP 5 object oriented development, all documentation I read on the topic seemed to suggest that the only way to write the method keywords is "public static". I've been following along those lines, and for a while I really thought any other order would trigger errors. Only recently I found out the other way round is actually nicer.

In his opinion, the "static public" keyword combination (versus "public static") is "more beautiful" than its inverse counterpart. He even asked about it in a twitpoll and got these results - "public static" winning out as the popular choice. If you want to voice your opinion, you can still get in on the poll.