Posted by John Gleason on September 15, 2007 at 10:13:22:
In Reply to: Re: MTB Decompiler posted by Jim Guerber on September 15, 2007 at 01:00:14:
Decompile even Comet utilities...? One of the main reasons I wrote the original decompiler was getting a job with a Qantel end-user in 1985 and finding that some of the source code was missing (another big reason was being told that I would never succeed in such a venture). There are good reasons and bad reasons for a decompiler. I'd hate to have my efforts in coding something unique easily confiscated by a competitor. You can put whatever rules and covenants in a software contract you want prohibiting a user from reverse-engineering the code, but that won't stop someone who really wants to do it.
Adding a compiler option to allow protecting code from decompilation will not be utilized by everyone. It wouldn't be used, for instance, by a software vendor that has gone out of business for which the source is forever unavailable without a decompiler. And in a worse-case scenario where a software vendor goes out of business (or is hit by a truck crossing the street) any code that they might have released with the "no-decompile" option switch is still recoverable by a decompiler that does not implement the logic to honor the presence of a "no-decompile" marker in the object file. Such a decompiler would not, ideally, be released but available as a service (assuming no legal liability attached to the service provider - getting a law degree has opened my eyes open to such things).
On a different subject I'd love to see more submissions of code by people to see just how well this new decompiler operates. Robert Laurin and Grant Foraker brought up some very good and valid criticisms (I believe in March 2007) of the old decompiler. Maybe this new decompiler generates source code that is just as difficult to work with. And maybe it would abate the concerns of some of the software vendors. Send in some code to be decompiled and see for yourself.
I've put together another little project (that is far from being ready for release) for the programmer who is at a customer's site without source code and needs to modify or debug a program. My application allows direct modification of a program by adding source code (and generating the object code for it) to the program and modifying existing lines of code (for instance rather than brancing to existing label "A" branching to a newly added branch "B" containing new code). Is there any interest in this? I began developing this application in conjunction with a small prototype for another tool (which I will not divulge at this time) a few years ago.