while we're at it (PHP-5.1 & instanceof)

I already complained about that issue several times on IRC and now that it's time for PHP-5.1 to come, I'll just throw this question/rant in... Using is_a() throws a notice (E_STRICT IIRC) in PHP5, which should be fine, because it was deprecated in favour of the instanceof operator. But there's quite an ugly problem with the instnceof operator - it needs the class to be checked already loaded, while is_a() didn't -- *and* instanceof let the script _die_ if there's no such class. To replace is_a($obj, 'ClassName') calls one would need to write class_exists('ClassName') && ($obj instanceof ClassName) The point is, that I don't see the point why is_a() has been deprecated (and replaced) by an operator that doesn't provide the same functionality and can even be harmful (with fatal errors). Regards, Mike