[jonathanyc]

More advanced transformers even handle direct transformation of library calls to "native" library calls in the target language. I think it's mostly things that try to take advantage of syntax that is already pretty similar - Processing.js transforming from Java to JavaScript, for example, that decide it would be easier to do a relatively simple syntax transformation and then implement some sort of wrapper for function calls (as you describe) than to do a potentially more in depth and complicated transformation.