no autocompletion for symfony getTable() function?

Question

if i use Doctrine_Core::getTable('User')-> i will have no auto completion.

isnt it better to just use User:: for autocompletion?

and of course i have to define the methods static

what is the benefit with using getTable except that i can use a non static method?

Answer 1

Because User:: would need to call a static method, but the methods are all non-static, so that would be invalid code.

Read up on the singleton pattern.