Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Path: utzoo!telly!druid!darcy
From: darcy@druid.uucp (D'Arcy J.M. Cain)
Subject: Re: Protection mode in BASIC
Message-ID: <1990Aug3.144400.17460@druid.uucp>
Organization: D'Arcy Cain Consulting, West Hill, Ontario
References: <4020@sonata> <1990Jul31.124048.19015@druid.uucp> <1037@wyvern.cs.uow.edu.au>
Distribution: alt
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 90 14:44:00 GMT

In article <1037@wyvern.cs.uow.edu.au> ph@wyvern.cs.uow.edu.au (Rev Phil Skinque, DD (Ret.)) writes:
>In article <1990Jul31.124048.19015@druid.uucp> darcy@druid.uucp (D'Arcy 
> J.M. Cain) writes:
>>
>>[...] first let me mount my soapbox.  If you are writing programs
>>for commercial sale you shouldn't be using BASIC.  If not you still shouldn't
>>be using BASIC for anything but quick and dirty stuff.  If you feel you must
>>use BASIC then you shouldn't be protecting them but rather let others see the
>>actual code.  There are two benefits to this.  Others learn from you and some
>>of them may be able to suggest improvements in the code for you.
>
>Hmmm... please explain the logic underlying these comments. Why shouldn't
>people use BASIC?
Read my posting.  I never said people shouldn't use BASIC.  I said that it
was unsuitable for commercial programs.  I realize of course that even that
will be considered elitist by many but I have had to bail out too many people
who figured that BASIC was suitable for high level applications.  I have seen
code that was shown to me proudly as an example of clever programming by the
writer and had to bite my tongue.

>                   And why should they sell unprotected software?
See what I wrote.  You quoted it in your message.

>                                                                  Methinks
>you've not thought this through.
I have.

>                                  There are reasons why someone might want
>to use BASIC,
Possibly good reasons.  I have been known to use it myself.

>             and reasons why they might want the slender bit of protection
>that can be had with the standard BASIC interpreters. Your comments sound
>like religion to me.
Then you don't know what religion is.  It certainly is my opinion and as such
you are free to take it or leave it but I have the right to hold them.  After
all, the above quote was just one paragraph from a larger article in which I
answer the original poster's question about how to unprotect a BASIC program.
I do try to help fellow programmer's any way I can.  I just feel that that
gives me the right to proselytize a little while I am at it.

Imagine that.  A programmer with opinions!  :-)

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain (darcy@druid)     |
D'Arcy Cain Consulting             |   MS-DOS:  The Andrew Dice Clay
West Hill, Ontario, Canada         |   of operating systems.
+ 416 281 6094                     |