Any reliable obfurscator for Python 2.5

[Roy Smith]

In article 
<3eac67b4-da0a-4926-9ca4-942271513ad2 at 26g2000hsk.googlegroups.com>,
 sturlamolden <sturlamolden at yahoo.no> wrote:

> On Apr 20, 5:28 pm, JB Stern <notform... at sonic.net> wrote:
> 
> > Curious Steve, how do you pay the rent and by what authority do you
> > speak for "The Python world"?  Your opinion couldn't be more wrong for
> > programmers like myself who live by the code they write (as opposed to
> > its support).
> 
> 
> Are you afraid to show the code to your customer? Are you afraid it
> will give you a bad reputatio? Are you worried about loosing future
> contracts? Is your code really that bad? Then you better keep it
> hidden from sight.
> 
> If this is the case, my advice to you would be to find a different
> profession. Perhaps flipping burgers at McDonald's fits your talent?

Even if this were worded in a less rude manner, it would be a silly 
argument.  For many businesses, keeping their source code secret is 
important.  Whether you agree with their reasons or not, they feel it is 
important to them.

Hiding your source code is not easy (perhaps impossible) in Python, for 
reasons which have been covered at length on a regular basis in this forum.  
If you only ship .pyc or .pyo files, there is still enough information 
recoverable in the field that most businesses which want to keep their 
source code hidden would feel excessively exposed.

Producing software is all about using tools.  Every tool has advantages and 
disadvantages.  The key to using tools effectively is understanding what 
those are and how they impact your business.  If you are lucky, you will 
find a tool which meets your needs perfectly.  More often, you have to 
weigh all the factors and make the best compromise you can.

If keeping your source code secret is of critical importance to your 
business, then Python is probably the wrong tool to be using to write an 
application that you're going to ship to customers.  If keeping your source 
code secret is not important to you, that doesn't mean those who do 
consider it important are stupid, or evil, or better suited for a career 
spatially reorienting meat by-product patties at a popular restaurant 
chain.  They just have different needs than you do.