The current implementation of Zend_Controller_Router objects does not specify a return value for many of the single-use methods, ie:

    public function addRoutes($routes) {
        foreach ($routes as $name => $route) {
            $this->addRoute($name, $route);
        }
    }

For the sake of method chaining, these functions should return the object ( return $this; ), permitting calls like the following:

Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->getRouter()
    ->addRoute('newRoute', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(':module/:controller/:action'))
    ->addRoute('newRoute', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(':controller/:action'))
    ->dispatch();

This currently throws a fatal error: Call to method "addRoute()" on a non-object.