Question

Since MATLAB does not provide self-reference, what is the actual difference between a static and a non-static method in MATLAB, apart from the latter not being call-able without a class instance? One always has to pass a reference to the object-to-be-modified anyway (edit apart from setters, getters and overloaded operators which implicitly include the self-reference)

Answer 1

For non-static methods, Matlab provides the calling class as the first argument. By (personal convention) I call this argument self, which then emulates a self reference syntax. e.g.:

methods (Static = false)
    function output = someMethod(self, arg1, arg2, arg3)
        self.x      %Now refers to the (potentially private) field `x`
        self.someOtherFunction(arg1, arg2) %Calls another method, which may be static or not.
    end
end

By contrast

methods (Static = true)
    function output = someStaticMethod(arg1, arg2, arg3)
        %There is no input appropriate to the name "self" 
        someOtherFunction(arg1, arg2) %Calls another method, which must be static
    end
end

Given an object someObject, these methods can both be called by using:

someObject.someMethod(arg1, arg2, arg3)
someObject.someStaticMethod(arg1, arg2, arg3)

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The self-reference discussed in the linked question is referring to package names, which is an entirely different animal.