I've seen a couple of questions pass by in the past asking for help to convert TechnologyX to TechnologyY, for instance:
How can I convert this chunk of Direct3D code to the OpenGL equivalent?
or:
How can I convert an algorithm written in C++ to Java?
Are questions like these allowed, and why? If not, what would be the reason(s) to close them?
How can I convert this piece of TechnologyX to TechnologyY?
should not be allowed, because it is basically asking for manual labor with too little benefit to anyone besides the asker.
However, if the asker goes around making some research and comes with the question
How can I implement this algorithm in TechnologyY?
while giving a detailed explanation of the algorithm, I believe it should be allowed. Because then it would serve an educational purpose as an example of the implementation of an algorithm; benefiting both the current asker and the future visitors.
They should be allowed, but should be subject to something similar to the criteria for acceptable debugging questions:
If problem is concise & generic enough to have wide applicability, the question is on-topic.
If the conversion in question involves going to or from code that has a wide user base who might have similar problems, the question is on-topic.
If the conversion request is essentially crowd sourcing the development, the question is off-topic.
Beyond that, there's still the matter of quality - on-topic conversion requests that show little to no research should be down voted accordingly.
