On: Underscore.php

[unfletch]

Also, the double underscore prefix is reserved for magic methods:

    PHP reserves all function names starting with __ as magical. It is
    recommended that you do not use function names with __ in PHP unless you
    want some documented magic functionality.

It's only explicitly reserved for functions, so you're technically ok here, but it still may cause confusion.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.magic.php

[bwh2 → unfletch]

It was a bit of pick your poison between a gettext() alias collision, ugly namespace syntax, and potential confusion with magic methods. Hopefully too many people aren't confused.