In 2.x, the to() operator used the generic Function to allow assembly-time conversion of flows into arbitrary types. The drawback of this approach was that each base reactive type had the same Function interface in their method signature, thus it was impossible to implement multiple converters for different reactive types within the same class. To work around this issue, the as operator and XConverter interfaces have been introduced in 2.x, which interfaces are distinct and can be implemented on the same class. Changing the signature of to in 2.x was not possible due to the pledged binary compatibility of the library.

From 3.x, the as() methods have been removed and the to() methods now each work with their respective XConverer interfaces:

• Flowable.to(Function<Flowable<T>, R>) is now Flowable.to(FlowableConverter<T, R>)
• Observable.to(Function<Observable<T>, R>) is now Observable.to(ObservableConverter<T, R>)
• Maybe.to(Function<Flowable<T>, R>) is now Maybe.to(MaybeConverter<T, R>)
• Single.to(Function<Flowable<T>, R>) is now Maybe.to(SingleConverter<T, R>)
• Completable.to(Function<Completable, R>) is now Completable.to(CompletableConverter<R>)
• ParallelFlowable.to(Function<ParallelFlowable<T>, R) is now ParallelFlowable.to(ParallelFlowableConverter<T, R>)

If one was using these methods with a lambda expression, only a recompilation is needed:

// before
source.to(flowable -> flowable.blockingFirst());

// after
source.to(flowable -> flowable.blockingFirst());

If one was implementing a Function interface (typically anonymously), the interface type, type arguments and the throws clause have to be adjusted

// before
source.to(new Function<Flowable<Integer>, Integer>() {
    @Override
    public Integer apply(Flowable<Integer> t) throws Exception {
        return t.blockingFirst();
    }
});

// after
source.to(new FlowableConverter<Integer, Integer>() {
    @Override
    public Integer apply(Flowable<Integer> t) {
        return t.blockingFirst();
    }
});

Resolves: #5654