Hi Derick,

The fancy var_dump function, which overrides the default var_dump() in PHP, does not have the same kind of output than the default function : it produces an html dump, whereas the default function produces a plain text dump (without html tags).

The PEAR::Var_Dump package, whose I am the maintainer, closely depends on the output of the original var_dump() function to operate. And because the two results differ, the result of the Var_Dump class using your fancy replacement, does not produce the expected result (see bug http://pear.php.net/bugs/bug.php?id=2574).

I've seen in the changelog, and in xdebug.c that your function overrides the default PHP function. But in the online documentation, you don't explicitly tell that, because the xdebug_var_dump() function is logically used to do this job.

So I wanted to have your opinion to resolve this problem smoothly : do I need to take care of the result of your function in the Var_Dump class ; or do you think it could be possible to leave the original function as it is, perhaps with a configuration item telling if the user want to override or not the default var_dump function ?

Regards,
Frederic Poeydomenge

PHP Version 4.3.9-1.dotdeb.3
PHP API 20020918
PHP Extension 20020429
Zend Extension 20021010
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies with
Xdebug v1.3.2

Reproduce code:

<?php
$a = array (1, 2, array ("a", "b", "c"));
var_dump($a);
?>

Expected result:

array(3) {
[0]=>
int(1)
[1]=>
int(2)
[2]=>
array(3) {
[0]=>
string(1) "a"
[1]=>
string(1) "b"
[2]=>
string(1) "c"
}
}

Actual result:

<pre>
<b>array</b>
0 <font color='#777777'>=></font> <font color='#00bb00'>1</font>
1 <font color='#777777'>=></font> <font color='#00bb00'>2</font>
2 <font color='#777777'>=></font>
<b>array</b>
0 <font color='#777777'>=></font> <font
color='#bb00bb'>'a'</font>
1 <font color='#777777'>=></font> <font
color='#bb00bb'>'b'</font>
2 <font color='#777777'>=></font> <font
color='#bb00bb'>'c'</font>
</pre>