JakubMisek I've sadly only started coding in php around three months ago and therefore don't know the extents of static code analysis, but would it be possible to check if "typeof(x)" (c++) is a derivative from object? The alternative is manually checking possible typings from the start of the assignment, like Visual Assist used to, but that might be error prone or require a lot of effort.
Other ideas: Check if the dot is coming directly after the variable with no space in between "$something." vs "$something . " Or check if the next typed character (aside from spaces) is a ' (apostrophe) " (quotation mark) or $ (dollar sign).
So a possible functionality could be "$something." becomes "$something->", while "$something ." stays.
"$something.$variable" would become "$something->" and then either back to "$something.$variable", or "$something->$variable". The thing with PHP's reflection is that it will be impossible to know in that case which will be meant, so you could just choose standard behaviour there. An automatically transformed . to -> should revert back to a dot using Backspace. With that covered, I'd personally be perfectly happy. Very used to it from VA in C++.