Strange problem in class creation

Hi all,

I have encountered a "tricky" problem with PHP 4.3.1 (installed with
SuSE 8.2).
I don't know if it is a bug or not. Maybe is just me missing something.

What I'd like to do is to pass a reference of "base_class" instance to the
constructor of "second_class" (so that the newly created "second_class"
instance can
call methods from the "base_class" instance.
It seems that if "base_class" constructor directly calls its method
"create()" (that is
responsible of creating the "second_class" instance, passing _$this_ as
constructor
argument) the second_class gets a "copy" of "base_class" instance and
not the real thing.

To test it, I have added an array ($arr) in the base_class and set a
value into it.
If "second_class" really have a reference to the "real" base_class
instance, it should be
able to print its contents, but this just doesn't work.

Please, notice that if in the following code you remove the line
"$this->create()"
in the base_class constructor and add the commented line in the main
body, everything
works fine.

What I am really missing?

Please, help!

Ciao,

Fabio

---- CODE STARTS HERE ------------------------------------------
<?php
class base_class
{
var $arr;
var $class;

function base_class ()
{
$this->arr = array ();
$this->class = false;

// it seems to create another "instance" of base_class
$this->create (); // this line does not work
}

function set ( $val )
{
$this->arr [] = $val;
}

function create ()
{
$this->class = new second_class ( $this );
}

function test ()
{
$this->class->dump ();
}
}

class second_class
{
function second_class ( & $main_class )
{
$this->main_class = & $main_class;
}

function dump ()
{
print_r ( $this->main_class->arr );
}
}

$b = new base_class ();
// $b->create (); // This line works as expected
$b->set ( "ciao" );
$b->test ();
print "<br />";
print_r ( $b->arr );

?>
---- END CODE ---------------------------------------------