On Tue, Apr 22, 2003 at 08:23:46AM -0500, Brooks R. Robinson wrote: > martin f krafft wrote: > | The second major challenge I see in the source code issue. MIT > | doesn't release the source code, so I guess it is not viable for > | Debian. Am I right, and should I push them to release to us, or are > | there even other issues at stake here? > > Well, if it's a java app, it can be decompiled back into source. > There are a few apps designed to do just that, but I don't know of any > in Debian in particular.
jad's in non-free; javap comes with various JVMs/JREs. > IMHO, Java is potentially the greatest open source language there is, > since it is simple to decompile back to source. Well, hey, you could pick one in which programs aren't shipped in a compiled form in the first place ... those are much friendlier to people trying to hack around with them. > I say simple, but then, I didn't write the decompiler. :) Note that, IIRC, the Java .class format doesn't store the names of local variables in methods, so you lose a good deal of intelligibility during the decompilation process. Cheers, -- Colin Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
