retreiving source code

Is it possible to somehow retreive the source code if you've got the byte co
de?

Jean Paul wrote:

> Is it possible to somehow retreive the source code if you've got the byte code?[/c
olor]

http://www.kpdus.com/jad.html

Jean Paul <piggybing@lycos.nl> wrote:
> Is it possible to somehow retreive the source code if you've got the byte code?[/c
olor]

Sometimes, using a decompiler. Alex posted a link in this thread.

Note however, that this is not guaranteed to work: there exist several
obfuscators that can mangle the Java bytecode in such a way that the
functionality remains, but automatic decompilation is not possible.

If you want to decompile such a program, manual decompilation is the only
thing that works. Rewriting it is probably cheaper in that case (that's
the intention anyway).

Luckily, such obfuscators are not / hardly used for open source projects:
if you can get the source anyway, obfuscating is pointless.


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Oscar Kind                                    http://home.hccnet.nl/okind/
Software Developer                    for contact information, see website

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