Packaging for shipping product made out of RoR

Rails
21

restructuring for bottom posting logic…

On Oct 12, 2011, at 10:35 AM, Brandon B. wrote:

The OP should note that pretty much all companies distributing their
software to end users use licensing agreements to protect proprietary
IP, not just obfuscation (via e.g. compilation).

FWIW,

That’s totally correct, but true with anything you compile and release.

Its no different than what you do with a regular Java app now …or
Flash, or C, or Objective-C, etc.

There are things you can do to obfuscate your compiled code but that
too can be reversed.

Nothing is fool proof, but providing compiled .class files beats they
hell out of handing them your source code in clear text.

Perhaps it is just my commitment to open source but if nothing else,
providing the complete unaltered and unobfuscated source code adds
substantial value and I suspect that if you have priced your efforts
appropriately and demonstrated your value sufficiently, that there
really isn’t any need to obfuscate at all in most instances.

Craig

22

@Craig

Totally. Theres huge value in that and if the situation permits I’m of
the same opinion.

When I buy products for my current company I prefer to buy ones that
also deliver source code so I can tinker at will.

However, doing so you do obviously open yourself up to having a
competitor buy your code, sometimes indirectly, and groking from it.

I wouldn’t trust the patent system to protect you these days. So, if
you’re going to release source with your product, make sure your
licensing and price model reflect that risk.

I think the OP was asking the question though with the intent of not
giving out the source.

23

We know that all code protection can be cracked, but what is the
“easiness
to read” of decompiled JRuby compared with say compiled .Net or C code?

M