__construct() is the class's constructor. It is called automatically by PHP whenever you create a new instance of a class.

__call() is a "magic" function that is called whenever you try to call a class method that does not exist. i.e. it gives you a chance to implement "dynamic" functions. It's quite powerful, but you have to be careful not to over use it as you might end up with an undocumented mess :)

Thanks for your kind words on the tutorials. I don't find writing easy at all - the coding is much simpler to do! I'm going to carry on documenting my experiences though as it's a way to force me to understand each component in turn.

Why does the view component need everything to be $this->var? Can't they make it so we can just do $var?

Also, could you explain what the __construct() and the __call functions do? Do we HAVE to have those, or can we leave those out and have it still work?

Thanks for the tutorials - they're awesome.. I hope you continue on with them.