note 89158 added to control-structures.if

I'm wondering about this statement. I found it in phpshop, an open source ecommerce project. <?php if (SOMEPREDEFINEDENTITY) : ?> <!-- some HTML code goes here --> <?php endif; ?> <!-- etc., etc... --> In debugging the section of code, it seems that no matter what the value of the condition, the HTML code is parsed. I may have seen this before, but it's not coming up on my radar screen. What does the colon (:) mean? Why does it matter if this is present if the HTML code is always parsed? ---- Server IP: 64.71.164.2 Probable Submitter: 98.100.99.186 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.if.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/89158 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89158/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89158/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89158/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89158/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89158/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89158/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89158 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/89158 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php