Syntax problem - dynamic static member access

Hello All, I am having an interesting syntax problem. :( I have been battling this little bugger for the last week and a half, I have exhausted google and numerous php channels in that time. I am starting to beleive it could be a syntax that is sofar un-documented or an unclear syntax limitation (read as: bug?). PHP Version: ------------ PHP Version 5.1.0-dev - And has been tested on numerous other builds/versions Problem: -------- I am trying to access a static member of a class dynamically. ie. $foo = 'className'; echo $foo::$staticMember; Example Code: ------------- <?php // Define a class with a nice juicy static variable class bob { public static $type = 'safd'; } // Lets chuck the name of the class into a variable... $foo = 'bob'; // Just to show it all works lets do it manualllllly echo bob::$type; // This is the line with the well-wicked parse error on the double colon echo $foo::$type; ?> Note that the last line in this example code generated a syntax error: Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM, expecting ',' or ';' in /mnt/data0/www/twd/test.php on line 15 I'm aware that the current syntax is definately wrong, but for simplicity i think its a good example. I think i have ruled out its an internal scoping issue within php by successfully using eval() to them same effect. ie. eval('echo '. $foo .'::$type;');

Thanks in advance for any Thoughts, Answers and Comments    

Regards Jake Press