What language will protect my source code?

Question

I wish to create shareware software that contains a registration algorithm. I am looking for a programming language, that cannot be easily decompiled into readable code. F

Answer 1

I am going to make the assumption that because you're writing shareware and you mention a registration algorithm you are wanting to protect your software from a keygen or patch that bypasses the restrictions on your trial versions.

Really the most you can do is deter. Like others have mentioned there are obfuscation techniques available, but they are not preventative. There are commercial software packers available which compress the file and make it initially unreadable. But the program has to be decompressed at some point so the machine can run it, so it's still reversible.

And that is pretty much the crutch against any of the anti-reversing techniques you'll see. It has to be interpreted by the machine at some point. More modern packers use anti-debugging techniques to deter the more novice reversers. But these techniques end up being documented rather quickly on popular reversing sites. Many of the techniques are bypassed with nothing more than a simple debugger plugin.

The only way I can think of to protect your executable from being arbitrarily reversed is to run the whole thing on a server you control and just pipe the output to users. But that's not always feasible.

As far as your language options go, take a loot at this. I can't really speak to how complete it is but I'm sure some others can add languages they think of.