The variable that holds the results of instantiating Zend_Session_Namespace is a Zend_Session_Namespace object. This variable respects the scope rules of any other variable. Part of instantiating this class is that it stores a value in the php $_SESSION array. So, for example, if you did:

You could get to that "jweber" by echoing out the class member "fname", or you could get to it by echoing out its corresponding key in the $_SESSION array, which in this case is $_SESSION['example']['fname']. $_SESSION['example']['fname'] has global scope while $exampleNamespace->fname has the scope associated with the variable $exampleNamespace. From what I recall of the ZF manual, they are discouraging accessing this value by directly interacting with the $_SESSION array.