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I'm lucky that my apps aren't mass-distributed, so I don't have to worry about obfuscating my source-code.
I wonder whether or not it is worth it. Are we not passed the stage where all the value is in the source-code and to a stage where it is the knowledge of the developers, the support we give our product, our expertise in solving problems that is more valuable to a company?
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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And what is the value of being able to see the source of 90% of applications out there? The good stuff is patented, the rest is connector code we write everyday ourselves anyway.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Christopher Duncan wrote:
"I always knew that somewhere deep inside that likable, Save the Whales kinda guy there lurked the heart of a troublemaker..."
Crikey! ain't life grand?
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You would also have to consider any software where transactions are worth money - you don't want people being able to poke their nose into the details of that too easily.
Gavin Greig
"Haw, you're no deid," girned Charon. "Get aff ma boat or ah'll report ye."
Matthew Fitt - The Hoose O Haivers: The Twelve Trauchles O Heracles.
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You make a good point Gavin. Hopefully though most financial software has it's core functionality on the server side behind thick security making reverse engineering difficult.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Christopher Duncan wrote:
"I always knew that somewhere deep inside that likable, Save the Whales kinda guy there lurked the heart of a troublemaker..."
Crikey! ain't life grand?
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Yep, it would be a bit bad if obfuscation was the only weapon in the arsenal. However, there are circumstances where it's not possible to rely on server-side security - the simplest and most widespread one I can think of would be shareware or other try-before-you-buy software, where the act of registering has a financial value.
We all know things like that are crackable if someone cares enough, but it's probably still worth using obfuscation to deter casual tinkering.
Gavin Greig
"Haw, you're no deid," girned Charon. "Get aff ma boat or ah'll report ye."
Matthew Fitt - The Hoose O Haivers: The Twelve Trauchles O Heracles.
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I would hope so, too, althoguh interestingly enough, Microsoft itself has historically gone through great pains to protect its source code, but now invents .NET which makes it pretty simply to reverse-engineer, reflect, or whatever and effectively get the soruce code from .NET apps.
An expert is somebody who learns more and more about less and less, until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
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I know that we are not the main stream, be making our source code available woudl do much more harm than good.
we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is Vonnegut jr.
sighist || Agile Programming | doxygen
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To qualify, when I voted Yes I meant ASP.NET. I don't have much experience in desktop apps and so cannot comment on .NET for that (though we do some Windows Services and they are bloody brilliant in .NET compared to the hoops I had to jump in VB6).
It seems all these .NET polls need to be qualified alongs the lines of ASP.NET vs The Rest of .NET. Anyone who knocks ASP.NET needs a head check.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Christopher Duncan wrote:
"I always knew that somewhere deep inside that likable, Save the Whales kinda guy there lurked the heart of a troublemaker..."
Crikey! ain't life grand?
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ASP.NET is the best web development tool I've come across (and I've tried the lot). Of course I still don't think web-applications are ready to replace desktop applications for the masses, but thats a totally different issue and probably another poll.
I like building desktop apps in .NET and C#. Actually, I'll qualify that, I like building .NET apps using C# and MyXaml[^] because I still think code-based forms are a bad idea.
I certainly think .NET is good enough to produce solid applications for the desktop masses, although I still think the tools need another release before they match what we've been building in MFC. The platform won't start to mature until we start getting apps out to the users and find out what works in the real world and what doesn't.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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