note 39288 deleted from ref.overload by sobak

Note Submitter: sdavey at datalink dot net dot au ---- It wasn't quite clear, but I found out that __get() and __set() only overload attributes that _don't_ exist. For example: <? class Foo { var $a = "normal attribute"; function __get($key, &$ret) { $ret = "overloaded return value"; return true; } } overload("Foo"); $foo = new Foo(); print "get a: $foo->a \n"; // prints: get a: normal attribute print "get b: $foo->b \n"; // prints: get b: overloaded return value ?> The important thing to note here is that $foo->a did not pass through __get(), because the attibute has been defined. So it's more like "underloading" than "overloading", as it only virtualises attributes that _do not_ exist.