From: Gregory Millam <walker@...>
Date: 2004-06-02T10:58:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Obfuscating Ruby Code.

Received: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 10:18:39 +0900
And lo, Ken wrote:

> Too funny, I expected as much ;)  Seriously, I have certain customers who do
> not want to purchase a source code license but since Ruby source is required
> (no pun intended) to deliver a Ruby app., customers must receive the source
> (and converting to C is not generally an option.)  I'm actually designing an
> obfuscator and will happily share it should a suitable alternative not
> already exist.  (And I hope your code is not so unreadable as to be
> considered self-obfuscating, unless of course you planned on everything
> being written in Deutsch  :)
> 
> Ken.

Err ...

Obfuscate Ruby code? I'm at a loss here ... :D. Perl is inanely obfuscated by default, but Ruby? 

How does obfuscating solve your problem? How is that even a problem? Just include a compiled ruby interpreter for your target platform, and have a link in your code that says "For more info about ruby and to download the interpreter, go to www.ruby-lang.org" ...

Obfuscaters serve no real use - as long as somebody can pass your code through a lexer, it's instantly unobfuscated.

- Greg