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Subject: Questionable private $varname behavior
From: greg@chiaraquartet.net (Greg Beaver)

Hi, a discussion on php.general led to the discovery of this oddly legal 
script:

<?php
   class dog {
     // declare two private variables
     private $Name;
     private $DogTag;

     public function bark() {
       print "Woof!\n";
     }

     public function printName() {
       print $this->Name; // prints nothing!
     }
   }

   // new class, for testing derived stuff
   class poodle extends dog {
     public function bark() {
       print "Yip!\n";
     }
   }

   // I now create an instance of the
   // derived class
   $poppy = new poodle;

   // and set its private property
   $poppy->Name = "Poppy";
   print $poppy->Name. "\n";
   $poppy->printName();
   print_r($poppy);
?>

outputs:

Poppy
poodle Object
(
     [Name:private] =>
     [DogTag:private] =>
     [Name] => Poppy
)

Is this expected behavior or should I open a bug?

Greg