Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!netcom!ergo
From: ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: C obfuscator
Message-ID: <12546@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 27 May 90 17:25:10 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 249-0290 guest}
Lines: 18


davel@cbnewsl.att.com (David Loewenstern) writes

>I am looking for a program (or emacs macro) which will translate
>C code into unreadable but functionally equivalent code.  At minimum,
>it must replace all variable names with cryptic names such as a1, i23, etc.
>Ideally, it should also rename functions.  Further obfuscation isn't really
>necessary for my purposes, but wouldn't hurt either.

I don't think I care for your purposes.  The last time I encountered this
sort of thing, it was a particularly arrogant chemistry prof who had developed
some tutorial software he wanted to cash in on.  Since he'd been paid a grant
to develop the software, he was legally obligated to release the source code.
But he decided he wasn't obligated to release *useable* source code.  So
he obfuscated it just like you're doing, so he could charge "consulting"
fees to schools who wanted to play with his "free" software.

Such greedy double-dipping is beneath contempt.