public static function var_dump($var, $varname = '...', $params = array())
    {
        if (!self::isDebug()) {
            return false;
        }

        // var_dump the variable into a buffer and keep the output
        ob_start();
        var_dump($var);
        $output = ob_get_clean();
        $_this  = self::i();

        // neaten the newlines and indents
        $output = preg_replace("/\]\=\>\n(\s+)/m", "] => ", $output);
        //if (!extension_loaded('xdebug')) {
        $output = $_this->_htmlChars($output);
        //}

        $_this->_dumpRenderHtml($output, $varname . '::html', $params);

        return $_this;
    }