Obscuring Python source from end users

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 5:50 PM, Johannes Bauer <dfnsonfsduifb at gmx.de> wrote:
> On 29.09.2014 16:53, Sturla Molden wrote:
>> Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> I have a project that involves distributing Python code to users in an
>>>> organisation. Users do not interact directly with the Python code; they
>>>> only know this project as an Excel add-in.
>>>>
>>>> Now, internal audit takes exception in some cases if users are able to
>>>> see the source code.
>>>
>>> The solution is to fix your internal audit.
>>
>> +1
>
> You two have obviously never worked at a large corporation or you would
> both realize how tremendously naive and unhelpful this "solution" is.

Unhelpful? Perhaps, perhaps not. I would, however, distinguish between
the two parts of my original response as follows:

1) The *solution* is to fix the audit process.

2) But here's one of several *work-arounds*.

It may well be impossible to truly solve the problem, and I'm aware of
that. But sometimes you need to point out that a pyc-only distribution
is still distributing something very VERY close to the source code,
and therefore it's nigh useless to talk of not distributing Python
source.

ChrisA