code i would like to use:

---cut---
function &someShit() {
  return 'foo';
}

$out = '';
for ($i = 1; $i <= 3; $i++) {
  $out .= &someShit() . "<br>\n";
}
echo $out;
---cut---


problem: 
parse error on line
  $out .= &someShit() . "<br>\n";
because .= and & don't work together.

so the workaround would be:
  $temp = &someShit() . "<br>\n";
  $out .= $temp;

problem here:
it prints out 'foofoofoo' and not
'foo<br>\nfoo<br>\nfoo<br>\n'

so the code finally looks like:

---cut---
function &someShit() {
  return 'foo';
}

$out = '';
for ($i = 1; $i <= 3; $i++) {
  $temp = &someShit();
  $out .= $temp . "<br>\n";
}
echo $out;
---cut---

is this the normal behavior?

fab