note 11735 added to include

Using PHP 4 on Linux RH 6.2; when I include() a file with a .php extension, it does not pick up the variable scope. When I change the extension to (eg) .txt, the expected variable scope works... IE: ====main.php==== <?php $myPageData="testing"; include ("some/page/somewhere.php"); ?> ====somewhere.php===== <misc html>... <?php echo $myPageData; // doesn't work echo "hmmmm"; // works ?> <more html>... Now change main.php to: ====main.php==== <?php $myPageData="testing"; include ("some/page/somewhere.txt"); ?> ====somewhere.txt===== <misc html>... <?php echo $myPageData; // works ?> <more html>... Am I missing something here? http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.include.php