All class and function names inside are automatically prefixed with namespace name. Inside namespace, local name always takes precedence over global name. It is possible to use the same namespace in several PHP files. The namespace declaration statement must be the very first statement in file.

The general idea is to provide an easy separation of functionality but to keep things accessible at any level (in scope, in parent scope, etc). He's included code in his mailing list post to illustrate how it would all work.

Several others in the PHP community have jumped on and are already talking about this new proposal:

• Evert Pot's post
• a blog entry from Richard Heyes proposing a namespace character
• a new post from the PHP 10.0 Blog on simplicity in namespaces
• this new post from Tony Bibbs
• some thoughts from Tobias Schlitt happily supporting the proposal
• this post from DynamicWebPages.de

I found exuberant ctags, a library which can be used to generate an index file mapping language objects to source files and the line in the source file where they are declared. Contrary to its name, it's not just for the C language; it currently supports 33 different programming languages, including PHP.

He also includes a usage example in the post, specifically for getting the tool up and working in your Vim installation (via a bash script). Then it's just a matter of issuing a :set command to point at the correct file and you're one keystroke away from the function/class declaration of your choice.