On the SitePoint PHP Blog, Harry Fuecks has a look at the "new(ish) __halt_compiler function" in PHP.
Simon blogmarked PHP's new(ish) __halt_compiler function which, according to the packet: "halts the execution of the compiler. This can be useful to embed data in PHP scripts, like the installation files. Byte position of the data start can be determined by the __COMPILER_HALT_OFFSET__ constant which is defined only if there is a __halt_compiler() presented in the file."
It may or may not be an elegant solution (it's certainly relatively simple) but it does have a very valid use case-to allow PHP applications which install themselves from a single script, all related pieces (other PHP scripts, CSS, HTML, images, etc.) being packed at the end of the script in a binary form.
Herry also mentions some specific examples of cases that could use it, including Ilia's fudforum software, which makes use of it to perform its installation.