It is possible to reverse engineer Java back to a compilable source code,
with class and variable names intact. This is because Java is compiled to a
byte code and metadata representation that permits this.

C/C++ is generally compiled to machine language, so reverse engineering it
is much more difficult. In theory you could create the source code for a
functionally equivalent program, but it would be next to impossible to
understand or maintain because it would not have the structure nor names
from the original program.

Microsofts new .NET technology (VB.NET, C#.NET, MC++.NET) is very similar to
Java and would presumably suffer the same exposure as Java.

Bob Ammerman
RAm Systems


----- Original Message -----
From: "Randy Poon" <randy9ca@YAHOO.COM>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 11:54 AM
Subject: [OT]: Java and C programs reverse engineering


> Hello,
>
> I heard somebody said, we can get back the source code from a Java
executable
> program easily by running some reverse engineering software. Is this true?
Does
> the same apply to the C Language? If so, our C programs will be highly
> unprotected, which is something I don't want to see!
>
> Thanks!
>
> Randy
>
>
>
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