hide python code !

[Ben Sizer]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:18:12 -0700, Ben Sizer wrote:
>
> > Imagine if you were the single-person developer of a small application
> > that did something quite innovative,
>
> And imagine that you found a money-tree in your back yard...
>
> How about a more likely scenario? Imagine you're using a boring,
> run-of-the-mill algorithm, the same as 99.9% of all software out there,
> and that it's neither non-obvious nor innovative in any way at all.
> Statistically, I'd say it is ten thousand times more likely that this is
> the case than that the algorithm is at all valuable. Everybody thinks
> their algorithm is "special". They almost never are.

I work in game development, where new algorithms and processes are
being discovered all the time. Sure, they're not going to cure cancer
or end poverty but there are most definitely some algorithms devised by
many developers which other companies have no idea how to emulate until
years down the line; long enough for the first company to enjoy a
little commercial benefit based on their individual implementation.

> Valuable algorithms are rare. Most software is not valuable for the
> algorithm, which is hidden in the source code, but for the functionality,
> which is obvious. Algorithms are a dime a dozen.

True, however, most is not all, and I think it's unfair to categorise
all software as being so trivial.

> Yes, and for every algorithm "worth stealing", there are ten thousand that
> aren't. Play the odds, and you too will poo-poo the idea that some random
> developer on Usenet has discovered a valuable innovative algorithm. More
> likely he's just ashamed of his code, or wants to hide backdoors in it.

Play the odds, and pretty much everything is unlikely. Of all the names
in the world, what was the chance of this language being called Python?
Yet these things occasionally happen. I have no opinion on why the
original poster wants to hide code, only an opinion on there definitely
being a few applications where it is very useful.

-- 
Ben Sizer