obviscating python code for distribution

[Dotan Cohen]

On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 07:40, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>

Actually, Chris, those applications are probably no less valuable to
be open source than Linux or Firefox. The reason is that when one goes
to learn a new language it is valuable to look at existing real world
code. However, the code available online generally falls into one of
two categories:
1) Simple sample code, which demonstrates a principle or technique
2) Full-blown FOSS application with hundreds of source files and a build

It sounds to me like your home-brew code might be one of the missing
links between the two. It won't be so tiny as to be trivial, but it
won't be so huge as to be beyond the grasp of novices.

I for one would love to look over such code. I'll learn something,
without a doubt. Maybe someone might even spot a bug or make a
suggestion to improve it. And almost invariably, any problem that I've
ever had someone has had first. So while you might have been one of
the first have a need to interface FooWidget with PlasmoidBar, someone
after you will in fact need just the code to do that.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com