__autoload vs include family
<p>I've discovered the <strong>__autoload</strong> function today and after reading the official manual page of this function there's a point I don't get at all.</p>

<p>What's clearly the difference between using __autoload() and let's say require_once?</p>

<p>because it looks autoload is the new fashion way of doing the required includes <strong>but</strong> to me it's far better to use <strong>require_once</strong> instead. Hence, __autoload has to be defined into all the php files which means writing its code down there, if I put <strong>ALL</strong> my includes/require_once/...etc into one file let's call it <strong>main_header.php</strong> then all I'll need to do in my web app files is write one line of code:</p>

<pre><code>&lt;?php require_once('main_header.php');  ?&gt; 
</code></pre>

<p>Am I wrong somewhere?</p>
