obviscating python code for distribution

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> The best way to do that is to labour in obscurity, where nobody either
> knows or cares about your application. There are hundreds of thousands,
> possibly millions, of such applications, with a user base of one: the
> creator.

And I'm sure Steven will agree with me that this is not in any way a
bad thing. I've written hundreds of such programs myself (possibly
thousands), and they have all served their purposes. On a slightly
larger scale, there are even more programs that have never left the
walls of my house, having been written for my own family - not because
I'm afraid someone else will steal them, but because they simply are
of no value to anyone else. But hey, if anyone wants a copy of my code
that's basically glue between [obscure application #1] and [obscure
application #2] that does [obscure translation] as well to save a
human from having to do it afterwards, sure! You're welcome to it! :)

However, I do not GPL my code; I prefer some of the other licenses
(such as CC-BY-SA), unless I'm working on a huge project that's not
meant to have separate authors. For something that by and large is one
person's work, I think it's appropriate to give attribution. But
discussion of exactly _which_ open source license to use is a can of
worms that's unlikely to be worth opening at this stage.

Chris Angelico