zend engine does not provide full variable reference for variable functions

Hi Andi, I think PHP does not support full variable reference as described for "quoted strings" (in What´s new on zend site), does this reference not apply for variable functions? I tried to execute a variable function, the executing doesn´t know neither if it´s a function nor if it´s a method, nor if it´s method from an instance in an instance... I want to access this method $this->db->query(), that works of course. 1.) slightly changed (but for my function useless) it still works $a='db'; $b='query'; $this->$a->$b() // this works too 2.) This does not work $str='db->query'; $this->$str(); nor this $this->${a->b}() // in fact, useless for me too, but tried out for debugging nor this ${this->a->b} // php tries to instantinate query, why? nor this $str='this->a->b'; // parse error ${str} $$str; I tried almost every possible combination. But I did not find any working one. Isn´t it possible in PHP (would be a great loss)? André