Java to ActionScript (via Perl)

#!/usr/bin/perl

while(<>)
{
   s/\bfinal//;
   s/\b(int|long) (\w+)/ var $2:int/;
   s/\bboolean (\w+)/ var $1:Boolean/;
   s/\bString (\w+)/ var $1:String/;
   s/System.out.println/trace/;

   s/ (void|int|String) (\w+\(.*?\))/ function $2:$1/;


   print;
}

The Commodore 1541 disk drive is a computer, with a 6502 microprocessor and its own RAM.  It talks to the Commodore 64 via a hastily-built proprietary serial variant of the IEEE488 bus.

And it's a pain to emulate.

Luckily, it's a solved problem, more or less, if your chosen programming language is C++ or Java.  If you want to do it in, say, ActionScript, then you are out of luck.

...unless you know Perl.

ActionScript, as you may know, has a fuzzy relationship with Java.  Its compiler is written in Java.  Its VM may very well be based on the JVM.  So it is no surprise that ActionScript source is in many ways a cipher of Java.

I wrote a very small Perl script to convert Java source to ActionScript source.  It doesn't do a 100% job, but in all things the best is the enemy of the good, and the Burrito Principle holds (80% of the meat is in 20% of the burrito).  So this gets me most of the way there, leaving small scraps to deal with (instead of facing a complete and more tedious rewrite).