funky issue

Hi, I am noticing a funky issue in MDB2_Schema. Specifically in the interaction between the parser [1] and the validator [2]. The parser generates some data structures, passes them on to the validator inside method calls. However the odd thing is that the process dies if I dont pass by reference variables that are just checked via isset(). here is some code from the parser:

        case 'database-table':
            $result = $this->val->validateTable($this->database_definition['tables'], $this->table, $this->table_name);
            if (PEAR::isError($result)) {
                $this->raiseError($result->getUserinfo(), 0, $xp, $result->getCode());
            } else {
                $this->database_definition['tables'][$this->table_name] = $this->table;
            }

and here the corresponding method in validate:

    function validateTable(&$tables, &$table, $table_name)
    {
        ..

        /* Table name duplicated? */
        if (isset($tables[$table_name])) {
            return $this->raiseError(MDB2_SCHEMA_ERROR_VALIDATE,
                'table "'.$table_name.'" already exists');
        }

        ..
    }

$tables is not modified anywhere and this is the only place its actually being used inside the method. $table is however modified and therefore needs to be passed by reference. switching the signature to function validateTable($tables, &$table, $table_name or even function validateTable(&$table, $tables, $table_name causes the operation to fail .. in 5.2.0 it seems to even cause a fatal error .. but i need to get this some more. regards, Lukas [1] http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pear/MDB2_Schema/MDB2/Schema/Parser.php?view=markup [2] http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/pear/MDB2_Schema/MDB2/Schema/Validate.php?view=markup