PHP6 return by reference deprecation

In another thread (which I mercifully declined to highjack), someone cited: > Taken from > http://www.corephp.co.uk/archives/19-Prepare-for-PHP-6.html And I read this: Both '$foo =& new StdClass()' and 'function &foo' will now raise an E_STRICT error. I don't use this much, but where I do, it's vital. Typically, I use it to ensure a single copy of the $config for an application, as: function &get_config() ... and/or: $cfg =& get_config(); If this is going away, how do you return things by reference, so as to ensure a single copy of something (yes, I know the singleton pattern can be used; I do use it as well; it's more complicated)? Paul -- Paul M. Foster