Kira - A language that compiles to PHP

I like the idea of a something-not-evil to PHP compiler, but I don't think this looks like the kind of language I had in mind. I can't help but think this is the malformed offspring of breeding ML with C#.

It seems like there could be some performance benefits in pre-compiling or "pre-parsing" PHP. For instance, the compiler could copy specific functions or classes from an include file and save them right into the script where they're actually used -- therefore eliminating the performance hit of managing include files at runtime.<p>Now, as to whether there's a benefit to learning an entirely new language in order to do this, I'm not so sure. Why not extend (and simplify) PHP while still using PHP syntax and grammar, the way jQuery does for JavaScript?

While it's novel that it's compiling to PHP, you're still at the mercy of PHP as a language and what it has to offer. For instance, PHP lacks a true closure so if Kira want's one it'll have to build out a full system...<p>C++ : C =&#62; Kira : PHP

I can't imagine wanting to convert another language to PHP, except for JavaScript maybe but that's not exactly useful. Now converting PHP to a different, more-useful language? that would be something :)

Kira doesn't look like fun to program in, but the idea of translating to PHP is interesting.