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Subject: Re: source code can be retrieved from an engine

Author: Sebastian Leibnitz

Date: 11:51:12 01/28/06

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On January 28, 2006 at 14:37:14, Uri Blass wrote:

>On January 28, 2006 at 13:27:25, Arnon Yogev wrote:
>
>>
>>Ofcourse it is possible to use dissassemblers to rebuild some of the code from
>>the .exe file,
>>but they were talking about _Automatic_ ways to do it.
>>this is impossible.
>>on the other points I completely agree with you.
>>
>>Arnon.
>
>please see the following post:
>
>http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?481685
>
>I understand that it is possible not only to disassemble code but to get
>directly C code and not assembler code.

That is the difference between a dissasembler and a decompiler.

Decompilers have come a long way, but (Arnon is right there), you dont get an
automatic full C-source-code.

That said, you do get C code, but is quite mutilated and especially most data
(prefilled arrays, etc) is difficult to extract.

But, as said in my previous post, it enables you to do several things.

1) check on algorithms >> easy
2) check on data >> depends, sometimes very easy(constants, hardcoded
bitboards), sometimes difficult(e.g. piece square tables)
3) rebuild the program (more or less the same, although the code might look
fairly different)  >> difficult (most likely more than a month for a skilled and
determined individual)



>Note that I read in this forum also that it is not illegal to do reverse
>engineering.

depends, look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering






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