note 116370 added to language.namespaces.rules

The mentioned filesystem analogy fails at an important point: Namespace resolution *only* works at declaration time. The compiler fixates all namespace/class references as absolute paths, like creating absolute symlinks. You can't expect relative symlinks, which should be evaluated during access -> during PHP runtime. In other words, namespaces are evaluated like __CLASS__ or self:: at parse-time. What's *not* happening, is the pendant for late static binding like static:: which resolves to the current class at runtime. So you can't do the following: namespace Alpha; class Helper { public static $Value = "ALPHA"; } class Base { public static function Write() { echo Helper::$Value; } } namespace Beta; class Helper extends \Alpha\Helper { public static $Value = 'BETA'; } class Base extends \Alpha\Base {} \Beta\Base::Write(); // should write "BETA" as this is the executing namespace context at runtime. If you copy the write() function into \Beta\Base it works as expected. ---- Server IP: 72.52.91.14 Probable Submitter: 185.35.216.238 ---- Manual Page -- http://php.net/manual/en/language.namespaces.rules.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/116370 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/116370/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/116370/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/116370/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/116370/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/116370/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/116370/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/116370 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/116370 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php