What does this do?
<p>I've never seen <code>$ret = N.T.T.T.T.'&lt;div id="toptabs"&gt;';</code> or anything like it, it seems like this would throw a parse error... can anyone explain why it doesn't?</p>

<pre><code>public function renderTabs() {
    if(empty($this-&gt;currentTabs)) {
        return '';
    }

    $ret = N.T.T.T.T.'&lt;div id="toptabs"&gt;';
    if(!empty($this-&gt;currentTabs['left'])) {
        $ret .= $this-&gt;doTabs($this-&gt;currentTabs['left'], 'left');
    }
    if(!empty($this-&gt;currentTabs['right'])) {
        $ret .= $this-&gt;doTabs($this-&gt;currentTabs['right'], 'right');
    }
    $ret .= N.T.T.T.T.'&lt;/div&gt;';

    return $ret;
}
</code></pre>
