Two questions

[Andrew Dalke]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> I can think of a number of reasons why somebody might want to hide their
> code. In no particular order:

> (3) You have create an incredibly valuable piece of code that will be
> worth millions, but only if nobody can see the source code. Yeah right.

 - id software makes a lot of money licensing their 3D FPS engine

 - stock market trading companies make money in part by having
    specialized software to help with market trading, forecasts, etc.

> (8) You are programming a game or puzzle, and you don't want players to
> cheat by reading the source code. Consider pulling out the information
> they need to cheat and putting it in an encrypted data file instead.

  But code is data ...


> There may be other reasons for wanting to keep the code secret. Some of
> them might even be good reasons, for some value of "good".

  You are the US government developing software to design/test the
  next generation nuclear weapons system and don't want any other
  country to use it.  (GnuNuke?)

  You are a student working on a take-home example and you aren't
  allowed to work with/help anyone else

 
> If you really what to hide your code, you might like to think about
> using C-extensions instead.

Or go the Amazon/EBay/Google approach and provide only client access
to your code.

				Andrew
				dalke at dalkescientific.com