Q on Class and EXTEND

[Jswalter]

I found a piece of code in the docs, and thought it was a way to EXTEND a
Class with new properties tha cna be accessed from original Class Object.

can someone tell me what I did wrong?

Thx

Walter

=====================

<?php


class THEPARENT {
var $name = null;

function THEPARENT( $newName )
{
$this->name = $newName ;
}
}

class THECHILD extends THEPARENT {

var $abc;
var $xyz = "xyz"; // NOTE: this value will be lost during
unserialization

function _ATOM() {

// NOTE: $this->xyz is now "xyz"
$this = unserialize (serialize (new THEPARENT()));
// NOTE: Original value of $this->xyz is lost

$this->$abc = "abc"; // Better: initialize values after ser/unser.
step
}
}

$a = new THEPARENT ('walter');

echo $a->name . '<p />';

echo $a->abc . '<p />';

?>