As documented in https://wiki.php.net/rfc/use_global_elements, the engine (by default) does a local namespace
lookup, then falls back to global namespace when first calling a global function referenced in namespaced code,
unless that function is referenced via fully qualified name (FQN).
By using the FQN, the actual symbol can be looked up at compile-time, both by the PHP engine and by static analysis
tooling, allowing for compiler (in particular) optimizations to replace known hot-path functions with specialized opcodes.
Sadly, no actual benchmark at hand: the improvements can be minimal or massive, depending on where this library is
used (tight loops being most relevant).
Ben Ramsey
Marco Pivetta