Hi,
Can hackers do something to read the source code of a Xojo app?
Regards,
Payam
Software can be reverse engineered in many ways. While they can’t get your exact variable names, great tools like Hopper allow them to stop and see how your app is functioning.
The answer isn’t “yes”, but the answer isn’t “no”.
Nothing is un-crackable but the fact that Xojo apps are compiled to machine code makes it difficult for nefarious people to get to your source. Its a darn sight more robust (not to mention faster) than interpreted languages such as Python, PHP and Ruby.
Hopper can decompile the resulting machine code.
But turning that back into Xojo code is a real chore because of how Xojo code is compiled from Xojo code to intermediate code then into machine code.
Add in things like the optimizations that can be applied and what may have started out a simple Xojo bit of code can be radically different machine code that Hopper disassembles.
Possible but very very unlikely
A question can be:
will it be faster (easier) to create a copy of the application or decompile the application / recompile it (Xojo use is not mandatory here) ?
[quote=435927:@Emile Schwarz]A question can be:
will it be faster (easier) to create a copy of the application or decompile the application / recompile it (Xojo use is not mandatory here) ?[/quote]
from my experience it is “copy” is faster than decompile/recompile. but NONE of us can say for 100% as there are many variables in play.
On the other hand, some other languages such as out of the box Android and Visual Basic, both “semi compiled” to tokens, can much more easily “decompiled”.
Just google “Visual Basic decompiler” or “Android decompiler” to see how easy it is.
Xojo is well aware of the issue with Android, and has shared that it was working on a compiler that generates machine code, which will defeat existing token decompilers.
That said, no language is beyond another kind of IP violation : copy cat. The Mac App Store and probably every software online store is full of “me too” apps, which are blatantly lifted off best sellers look and feel.
I guess nobody would be interested in hacking my code 
Easy route to insanity is to hack my code!
In the matter, small is beautiful. Hackers are usually not interested in relatively unknown apps.
What gets most hacked is big apps.
when you get hacked, it’s nice to know that your app is worth it !
why??