> 1) It seems that the getter and setter are not called on every single
> call. For example, if I do the following:
>
> $bar = new foo;
> $bar->x = 'x';
>
> There is no output. I would expect to see "Setting $this->x to x."
> Another example:
>
> $bar = new foo;
> $bar->y = 'y';
> echo $bar->y;
>
> I would expect this to see "The value of y is y." but instead I just
> get 'y' as output. So when do the various setters/getters get used?
>
> 2) It seems that getters ignore the visibility of properties. Why is
> this? For example:
>
> $bar = new foo;
> echo $bar->z;
>
> I would expect this to throw an error about accessing a private
> member, but it outputs "The value of z is z." just fine. If I remove
> the __get() overloader, an error is thrown.
>
> I'm guessing that the answer to all of my questions is some how
> wrapped up in visibility and overloading. Unfortunately I cannot find
> any resource that documents the interactions. TIA.
>

As I understand it, the __get and __set do not ignore visibility;
rather, they only work for accessing private members. If a property is
declared public, it does not need the __get and __set, so they aren't
used. Likewise, $bar->y is public since it was added dynamically
outside the class.

Andrew