Distributing programs

[Jason]

A non-python programming friend of mine has said that any programs made
with Python must be distributed with, or an alternative link, to the
source of the program.

Is this true?

[Jeff Schwab]

Re: Distributing programs

Jason wrote:[color=blue]
> A non-python programming friend of mine has said that any programs made
> with Python must be distributed with, or an alternative link, to the
> source of the program.
>
> Is this true?[/color]

Sorta, but not really. Typically, you might distribute the source (.py)
files, but if you don't want to do that, you can distribute the
compiled .pyc files instead. Python creates these files automatically
when your modules are imported.

[Leif K-Brooks]

Re: Distributing programs

Jeff Schwab wrote:[color=blue]
> Sorta, but not really. Typically, you might distribute the source (.py)
> files, but if you don't want to do that, you can distribute the
> compiled .pyc files instead. Python creates these files automatically
> when your modules are imported.[/color]

But remember that Python bytecode can be easily decompiled with a
publicly-available program.

[Steve Bergman]

Re: Distributing programs

Leif K-Brooks wrote:
[color=blue]
>But remember that Python bytecode can be easily decompiled with a
>publicly-available program.
>
>[/color]
I hope it is not considered too antisocial to bring it up here, but
there is always PyObfuscate:

http://www.lysator.liu.se/~astrand/projects/pyobfuscate/

-Steve Bergman

[Wouter van Ooijen]

Re: Distributing programs

>A non-python programming friend of mine has said that any programs made[color=blue]
>with Python must be distributed with, or an alternative link, to the
>source of the program.[/color]

Yes, and you must also include a blank sheet, signed by you in blood.

Seriously, whatever the license of Python itself is, a program you
have *written in Python* (which Iassume you are referring to) is
completely yours.


Wouter van Ooijen

-- ------------------------------------

http://www.voti.nl

Webshop for PICs and other electronics

http://www.voti.nl/hvu

Teacher electronics and informatics

[Steve Bergman]

Re: Distributing programs

Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl) wrote:
[color=blue]
>Yes, and you must also include a blank sheet, signed by you in blood.
>
>[/color]
I thought you only had to do that if you were submitting a patch to
MySQL, Qt, OpenOffice, or OpenSolaris. ;-)

-Steve Bergman

[Magnus Lycka]

Re: Distributing programs

Jason wrote:[color=blue]
> A non-python programming friend of mine has said that any programs made
> with Python must be distributed with, or an alternative link, to the
> source of the program.
>
> Is this true?[/color]

There seems to be some confusion regarding what you are asking.

Are you asking about legal issues of about technical issues?
Perhaps your friend is confused about these issues.

There are no licence problems with Python. It doesn't use
anything like GPL. You do what you like with your code.

Technically, Python code is compiled into bytecode (like Java)
but in contrast with typical Java apps, it's common that
Python code is delivered as source. As someone else mentioned,
python modules are automatically compiled the first time they
are imported, and the compiled modules will be used directly
the next time, unless you change the source code (Python looks
at file modification times).

Typically, it seems professional programmers developing commercial
software with Python worry little about their sourcecode being
accessible. Source code is protected by copyright after all, and
hiding source code doesn't prevent people from stealing software
anyway.

For some strange reason, it seems that it's almost always complete
beginners that express their worries that someone will steal their
valuable intellectual property if they distribute source, and that
somehow strikes me as unlikely.