Any reliable obfurscator for Python 2.5

[Steve Holden]

JB "My first post on c.l.py" Stern wrote:
> Banibrata Dutta wrote:
>>> Wanted to check if there is any known, reliable, FOSS/Libre -- Obfurscator
>>> for Python 2.5 code.
> 
> No, sadly, there is not.  There are a number of applications I would be
> working on if it were possible to obfuscate pyc files.  About the best
> you can do as of 2008/04 is use Jython to compile into Java bytecode and
> obfuscate that using Proguard.
> 
> Steve 'not an economics major' Holden wrote:
>> The Python world isn't particularly paranoid about obfuscation. It's 
>> quite easy to publish compiled code only (.pyc and/or .pyo files), and 
>> that offers enough protection for most.
> 
> 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).
> 
I pay the mortgage by creating software systems, though not usually 
packaged systems for shrink-wrap sale. I don't claim to speak *for* the 
whole Python world, but as chairman of the Python Software Foundation 
and a long-time member of this mailing list I can probably claim to be 
more closely in touch with it than many--yourself included, apparently.

If it's important to you to be able to obfuscate your code then you have 
made an inapposite choice of language.

> Steve 'not a software consultant' Holden wrote:
>> The sad fact is that there seems to be an almost direct inverse 
>> correlation between the worth of the code and the authors' desire to 
>> protect it from piracy.
> 
> Would love to see some evidence to that effect.  
> 
That is just an observation based on the many similar posts that have 
been made on this list, not one of them coming from the author of a 
recognized software package, plus forty years experience in the software 
industry. The ripping of of source code is far less frequent that novice 
programmers believe.

The code that novice programmers write is almost always less valuable 
than they believe.

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
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