Runtime Converter 2.0: Namespaces and Protobuf Improvements

The next version of the converter and runtime library will include support for namespaces and speed improvements using Google's Protobuf library (see our last post). PHP namespaces will be translated into Java packages, and function + method calls will be translated accordingly. Namespace imports and aliases will also be considered properly. We've also developed a feature that will import a class name locally where there are no conflicts, and which will also expand package names where there is one. In the previous version of the converter, we imported a number of our base class names by default, and specified others using their full package name. This solution will reduce the verbosity of the generated code, and fully support namespaces without conflict.

These features have already been developed, but we'll wait to see what else should go in the next release of the Runtime Converter and library. We'll also be including increased "fault tolerance" in the converter for users who submit invalid or unsupported code.