| Re: Examine "Saved" IDL procedures now too! [message #29874 is a reply to message #29825] |
Mon, 25 March 2002 18:13   |
Pavel Romashkin
Messages: 166
Registered: April 1999
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Senior Member |
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Given that quite a few people invest time and effort into writing code for
others for living, I don't feel good about this. Although I appreciate
technical challenge, I have asked Craig before not to release his library.
But I guess the urge for fame got the best of him :-(
I am sure many people would love to be able to decompile commercial products
into source code. Also known as hacking. This is what I think we are seeing
here.
I am sure it is far from impossible to, say, fish out IDL's license code
from its binary and post the hack all over the internet, but I doubt it
would be the right thing to do.
I indeed agree that ability to make executables is what we all want but I
don't think that this way we are any closer to that. And a lot of code that
developers might not want to disclose is wide open now.
Sorry,
Pavel
P.S. I do not make money writing IDL programs.
"Craig Markwardt" <craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu> wrote in message
news:ony9gkeffb.fsf@cow.physics.wisc.edu...
>
> Greetings! As a few people have been posting about, I have a library
> that allows you to manipulate IDL SAVE files. Up until now, this
> capacity has been limited to reading and writing IDL *variables* (data
> only).
>
> Allow me to announce the first major upgrade to my library, which
> allows you to read and translate saved IDL *procedures*.
>
> As of 2002 Mar 22, four new routines are included which can translate
> compiled procedures from SAVE files, back into human readable form.
> Now if you have lost the source code to a compiled save file, or if
> you just want to see how things work, you can translate the save file
> back to a format familiar to you!
>
> The main routine of interest is the simple driver routine called
> PROTRANS, which will translate compiled code from IDL SAVE files into
> and IDL-like format. As usual all files contain full documentation in
> their program headers. I have anticipated a few frequently asked
> questions too, so go ahead and read those. :-)
>
> As far as I am aware, PROTRANS (and underlying library routines PRODIS
> and PROREND) is capable of translating *any* saved procedure or
> function created by IDL 4, and IDL 5.0 through IDL 5.5, *except* that
> it does not handle compressed files. [ Although this is easily
> remedied by restoring and resaving in non-compressed form. ]
>
> ***
>
> In a separate development, I have also posted extensive documentation
> of the format of IDL save files (variables only). While I anticipate
> that the interest in this document will be essentially zero, I felt it
> was important to document the knowledge. This may especially help
> users from other languages to read and write IDL save files.
>
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Craig
>
> http://cow.physics.wisc.edu/~craigm/idl/idl.html (under Save Files)
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
> Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D. EMAIL: craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
> Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better response
> ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
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