Re: Encoded Mathematica Files
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg30471] Re: Encoded Mathematica Files
- From: Jens-Peer Kuska <kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de>
- Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 02:15:35 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: Universitaet Leipzig
- References: <9lvhc2$4oi$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi, the reason to encode a Mathematica package *is* to hide the implementation ! It is done, if the author of the code don't like to show you how clever he is. Many programmer don't like to give the source code away. Encoding is the only possibility to hide the source for the case of a Mathematica package. For a compiled program you get only the binary and you will never see the souce code. You plan a "reverse enginering" of the program source, this is usual forbidden in your license agreement ! And if you talk about a commercial package it is probably illegal to reverse engenier it. You should ask the author of the packages if you wish to see/modify the source code. The encoding is not a very good protection of the Mathematica source. If you can find the contexts, that the encoded package create, you can try to reconstruct the source by using Information["TheContextOfThePackage`*"] Information["TheContextOfThePackage`Private`*"] and ask for Information[]/Definition[] all functions and variables in this contexts, you can copy/paste the listings into an ASCII editor, remove the fancy context prefixes in the identifyers and you get some kind of listing. This works not for functions with the attribute ReadProtected and so your reconstruction may have some missing parts. It give you atleast a hint about the implementation details. And it may be not perfect. To say it again -- it may be illegal to do that (!) for a commecial package. Regards Jens khufu wrote: > > I've inherited some saved bits of Mathematica code > that the author has saved > in Mathematica Encoded format. I've managed to > load in (<<encodedfile) and > display (!!encodedfile) but despite my ample > reading of the help and > documentation I can't seem to figure out how to > save or view these encoded > files in unencoded format so I can read what the > hell they do! Could > someone toss me a hint? > > Many thanks. > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger > http://phonecard.yahoo.com/