Freeze/Source Code Question?

[David Lees]

Should have mentioned that these questions are triggered by reading the
Editorial review by Peter Leopold on the Amazon site, of the book Python
Essential Reference by David Beazley.  In particular he says:
"...If writing the byte-compiled code to a file is not possible, Python
suffers from the limitations of other scripting languages: the
executable is the source and cannot be hidden from the user, at least
not without some difficulty. Despite its extensibility, embeddability,
and pleasing architecture, Python is like other scripting languages:
appropriate for solving small nonproprietary problems.."

David Lees wrote:
> 
> I am taking an initial look at Python (total novice) and am puzzled
> about the existence of Freeze.  If you do not wish to show your source
> code to the world, I gather the byte code in the form of *.pyc files can
> be executed.  If the Freeze stuff, just embeds the byte code into a C
> program (interpreter?) what is the difference from the viewpoint of
> hiding the code?  I assume the C might be easier to run, because
> everything is in one executable, but is the byte code still not easily
> viewed with an octal or hex dump, just as in the .pyc files?
> 
> Are there really good decompilers that translate byte code into source
> for Python, so that nothing is really hidden?  If so, is it really much
> different that Java or Visual Basic, where presumably the same thing can
> be done?
> 
> David Lees