Can SimpleXML still return all namespaces?

I was interested in this article

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2004/01/15/simplexml.html?page=2

and its description of the handling of namespaces in a beta version of
SimpleXML where it simply ignores them, returning elements and
attributes from all namespaces.

Obviously this behaviour was changed by the time the final version was
released, as now it only returns values in the default namespace (and 
doesn't seem to do that quite correctly; I have just filed a bug report 
http://bugs.php.net/42026).

For me, the alternative behaviour would be useful/desirable. Is there a 
way to turn this on by a runtime option? As a second best, is there a 
value that can be passed to children()/attributes() that cause them to 
return names from all namespaces?

If not, can I make a feature request of this? Where do I do so? I 
couldn't find anywhere on the website. I don't imagine it would be too 
difficult to implement as it's been there before!

Ben.