question about defining constants and pear coding standards

Say I have a snippet of code like this: <? $a = new Some_Object(); echo $a->toString(); ?> ...and that Some_Object could operate in several possible modes. Since I'd like all instances of Some_Object to work in the same mode, passing the mode info. to Some_Object every time I instantiate it is something I'd rather not do (how am I to ensure they're all going to be in the same mode, if that's how I set the mode?) I was thinking an alternative way to do this would be to do something like... <? define('SOME_OBJECT_MODE',SOME_OBJECT_PHP); $a = new Some_Object(); echo $a->toString(); ?> If SOME_OBJECT_MODE wasn't specified, a default mode could be used, by (in Some_Object.php) doing something like... if ( !defined('SOME_OBJECT_MODE') ) { define('SOME_OBJECT_MODE',SOME_OBJECT_PHP); } Anyway, the only thing I'm wondering is... would this be okay, per the Pear coding standards?