$this stays defined when an instantatiated member function calls a
non-instantiated member function.
Correct. I actually find it quite interesting. :)
It can be useful at times, I have used it in my
libraries as a feature.
There is an interesting article on the subject:
http://www.advogato.org/article/470.html
Now, please tell me how can you decide whether the member function is
called as an object element (eg. $obj->func()) or as a class element
(eg. class::func()).
You mean from the function itself? You can't, as far as I
can tell. That is why this works best if you have a "helper"
class with all static methods. Once nice example that
comes to mind is a method that persists objects to the
database.
But never mind that, I am not trying to justify the
existence of this quirk so there is no point in
discussing it.
Basic functionality is killed with this so-called feature.
Although I did use it as such, I wouldn't actually call
this a feature, and would prefer to have it removed from
ZE2.
Bye,
Ivan