Description:
------------
On the document page:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.references.return.php

"& by function definition is optional in class methods."



Reproduce code:
---------------
<?
class reftest
{
  var $var = "original";

  function by_copy()
  {
    return $this->var;
  }
}

print "By copy:\n";
$t = new reftest;
var_dump($t);
$c =& $t->by_copy();
$c = "copy";
var_dump($t);


Expected result:
----------------
According to docs, $c should be a reference to the class variable. $t->c should have the value "copy" in the output from the last var_dump. When an ampersand is prefixed on the function by_copy(), it works as expected.


Actual result:
--------------
as demonstrated by the above code, a copy is returned.