what $meta[] is supposed to be doing at all, i mean as an argument, not as assignment

Think of it as shorthand for, creating a new element and having the function update that new element (see code fragment below). Functions with side-effects on their parameters aren't the clearest, can the function be re-written removing the need for passing parameters by reference?

$new_element = null;
$meta[] = &$new;
some_fn_with_side_fx($new);

...

function some_fn_with_side_fx(&$param) {
...
}

@HakanS can you have a look into the _parseXmpNode function and fix $meta[]? or do you have some data that let me test this a bit complete?

Maybe it could be rewritten as:

$cnt = count($meta);
while ($values[++$i]['tag'] == 'rdf:li') {
    $meta[$cnt] = null;
    $this->_parseXmpNode($values, $i, $meta[$cnt], $count);
    $cnt++;
}

This library is kind of shitty. I wish we could replace it with something cleaner. Suggestions welcome.