I had not thought of simply putting the static 1MB file into the program itself as a text file. That is actually “enough” security for my purposes even if it sits in there unencrypted. And it makes it easier for the user because there is one less file to deal with. It probably violates some principle that you should not have “data” in your code, but in this circumstance it might work for me.
When I just try it this morning it does not quite work for some mysterious reason, but I will work on this in a few days when I come home from a trip. I am intrigued, but I have to leave for this small trip
I am surprised by this because I was originally just importing the data into a variable in the program. To test the Constant approach, I just pasted the 1MB file into a Constant in the IDE and then altered the code to copy it into the same variable to see if it would work. For some reason it does not. Self.xInfo is the variable (property). It has plenty of return characters,
[quote] Dim axOneLine() As Text
axOneLine = Self.xInfo.Split(CR)[/quote]
That line does not work when Self.xInfo has simply had its contents transferred from the Constant.
The variable is large enough that I cannot effectively see it in the debugger. The wheel starts spinning endlessly.
Anyway, with a little time, I should be able to study this and get a notion of what is happening.
But I am going to look into the other suggestions made because then I will learn something about encryption. Both the Tekinay and MSB.
Look forward to the obfuscation article in xDev. Thanks all.