Lex Williams wrote:
> Adam Shelly wrote:
>> On 8/28/08, Michael Morin <uzimonkey / gmail.com> wrote:
>>> something like this exists for Ruby:
>>>
>>> http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/
>>>
>>> But I'm sure someone here has done this and can give you some more specific
>>> advice.
>>>
>> I have used rubyscript2exe with FxRuby, and it works fine.  (Startup
>> can be a little slow, as it unpacks a bunch of stuff to a temporary
>> directory, but after that it works great.)
>>
>> -Adam
> 
> but,what if I don't want the end-user to be able to see the source code 
> of the script ?

You can't really do that, the best you can do is obfuscation.  Even 
then, a skilled person can de-obfuscate the code or otherwise reverse 
engineer it.  All you do is raise the bar a little bit, you don't 
prevent anyone from doing anything.

Strictly speaking, all software is open source.  You cannot hide the 
source code to your application, only translate it into something less 
human readable.  Also, in almost all cases, preventing someone from 
reading the code in the first place is a useless endeavor.  Only where 
something like trade secrets and industrial espionage is a factor does 
hiding your source code make sense.

-- 
Michael Morin
Guide to Ruby
http://ruby.about.com/
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