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Re: code mangler

At 12:04 pm -0700 25/10/04, Scott Palmer <email@hidden> wrote: 

On Oct 24, 2004, at 9:43 PM, Dmitry Markman wrote:

 I'm always wondering
 why people want to obfuscate their code
 it's mystery to me :-((


They erroneously think it protects their code. (hint:  Copyright laws
protect your code.  Obfuscation just adds a step to your build process
and makes stack traces less useful.)

Consider that most software that is "cracked" and pirated is compiled
to machine code.  Nobody needs to see your source code to steal from
you.

If the bad guys want it, they will take it.  You will still have to
catch them and sue them to stop them.

Well, let's take the argument to the opposite extreme. If obfuscated code is no more protected than code with all the symbols in, what about the other way round? Presumably publishing the complete source code with comments and all is no less protected in that case? Might as well include all the project files, raw resource files and ant scripts as well. And why not the complete cvs source repository, bug database and design documents as well for good measure??

That's all fine if you're an academic institution or writing a little open source utility, but do you seriously think that someone like Adobe would do that with the C++ source code of Photoshop, say, or that if they did it wouldn't make the job of all those Photoshop wannabes any easier?

Yes, people can still decompile obfuscated Java class files, but that doesn't mean to say you have make it easy for them if you're supplying commercial applications written in Java.

-Rolf

PS. Apologies for joining the party late; backlog of email.
--
Rolf Howarth, Square Box Systems Ltd, Stratford-upon-Avon UK.
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