NYCPHP Meetup

[charles at softwareprototypes.com]

Kyle, my dear man,

I have no problem with you or with much of anything else. My mind is
as broad as the ocean. And I don't let language upset me.

I was emphasising to get your attention. And I did, didn't I?

Sorry if you got offended (they're only words, your face is not
smarting and your car alarm didn't go off,) but my point still
remains.

Your alleged need to obfuacate is based on a fallacy. Obfuscation is
fundamentally, thoroughly, deeply and irremediably counter-productive.

Its so easy to defeat, you would be utterly crestfallen.

I KNOW this from having worked both sides of that street.

I have had code classified on me by NATO that would not have remotely
interested anyone in the then Soviet Union under the wildest and most
remote of circumstances. (I don't know anyone who'd be remotely
interested in the supply chain for ammunition for the Frigate mounted
Bofors Phalanx gun.)

And I have written about and published techniques in trade journals,
useful code fragments and entire programs to universal yawns. Nobody
cared then. Nobody cares now. (Well, maybe, except for the eponymous
dialog definition, specification, documentation and test-planning
technique. That one even got written about itself.)

Until you can show me, or anyone else, ANYONE who has ever been
financially damaged by having code revealed, you're, uh, not to
further offend your sensibilities, just whistling the the dark.

The product is a bad idea on the wrong platform and an utter waste of
cycles to implement, execute and deploy. It has no market except for
deluded fools who think anyone actually cares and it has no future.

Sorry if you thought it was a neat hack, and I'm sure it was, but its
like a glow-in-the-dark brassiere, completely useless. I won't
mention other comparisons that spring, unbidden, to my lips.

I bet it screws up acceleration engines too unless you merely mapped
the source code and eliminated variable names and function names. You
should see the Smalltalk decompiler one day. You'll be in for a rude
awakening. (Worse than my [expletive deleted] phraseology. :-)

-Ch-A.

> From: "Kyle Tuskey" <ktuskey at exostream.com>
> Organization: New York PHP
> Reply-To: talk at nyphp.org
> Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 23:49:21 -0400
> To: NYPHP Talk <talk at nyphp.org>
> Subject: RE: [nycphp-talk] testers wanted - phpguardian.com
> 
> 
> Charles,
> 
> I don't respond to people who are narrow minded and need to curse to
> make a point.  Protecting code is a valid practice.  I'm sorry you
don't
> agree, but please don't bring it to an infantile level. Thanks.
> 
> Kyle