Description:
------------
Yes, I read the upgrade guide and the other bug reports regarding this topic so this is not a bug report but a plea for reconsideration.

I really like that finally __toString() works in every situation but the inability to output object instances without __toString() defined is just too annoying. PHP preaches the KISS principle and on this issue the language is breaking its own rules.

First of all, there are engine internal classes where the programmer is unable to provide a __toString method. Subclassing all of these classes upon usage just "to be on the safe side" is nonsense. If object output can't be changed to provide a fallback if __toString() is missing then at least all engine internal classes should implement their own default output.

Secondly, for safety many programmers might be tempted to make all classes extend a common superclass just "to be on the safe side". This is braindead for the sake of any OOP concept but I already see some guys on the horizon ready to do it.

And at last: There are so many convenient functions that just break if their input contains "problem objects". It just makes no sense that PHP forces me to implement an "object safe" version of implode()! I just had to do that and the loss of performance makes me shudder. Rasmus once said that PHP should only be a frontend for "PHP templates" that make use of as much precompiled code as possible. So why are these "templates" forced to implement ever more stuff in the userland?

Suggestions:

- at least implement default output for all engine internal classes

- change __toString() to have a fallback, even "[__toString() missing]" improves on the current situation

-- if this isn't POSSIBLE: PLEASE clearly state why at prominent places in the documentation.

-- if this isn't WANTED: make it configurable or better, add a magic function, for example __tostring_fallback(), which should return a string. If it doesn't exist or doesn't return a string: go ahead raising the recoverable error! Abusing an error handler to do this is NOT a solution.


Reproduce code:
---------------
<?php
echo new DateTime();
/*
 * How about this yielding the ISO formatted date or a timestamp?
 * Possibly even as debug output like
 * 
 * [DateTime object: 2004-02-12T15:19:21+00:00]
 * 
 * Definitely better than raising an error!
 */


Expected result:
----------------
some output and the script continuing

Actual result:
--------------
PHP Catchable fatal error:  Object of class DateTime could not be converted to string in C:\test.php on line 2

Catchable fatal error: Object of class DateTime could not be converted to string in C:\test.php on line 2