> But if I wanted to study RT-11 in
> detail, hand disassembling it would be a major undertaking.
Actually, a bad example, since sources are available.
This is a worthwhile effort, but very time consuming.
The DMCA also is an issue.
On Thu, 30 Nov 2006, Richard wrote:
> Has anyone considered decompilation (producing sources from
binaries)
> as a way of archiving system or application software that is
defunct?
>
> I know lots of people have disassembled ROM listings and created
> commented ASM listings from the ROM, but what about larger systems
> where hand-disassembly is impractical?
Hand-disassembly is just the start. Vast machineries of
automated disassembly/decompilation is used
throughout the world in piracy and reverse-engineering
activities. These sorts of tools have been in existence
for at least 30 years, very likely 40 or 50 years.
Related to these machinations are other tools used
in reverse-engineering, including emulators, simulators,
in-circuit emulators, logic analyzers, etc.
All of these tools are also used in retro-computing
as defined by many different groups: video gamers,
emulation of historically important systems by academics,
and everything in between.
But what you describe goes way beyond simple archiving,
and more into the tools that let you analyze and
appreciate the code. If you can combine the code with
the original designers, original users, original
business documents, etc., then you are really on the
road to a complete recreation of not only the code,
but the world at the time.
As a classic example, 25 years ago you could buy a tool
that disassembled your CP/M binaries and turned them
into *commented* sources. Not the original source, of
course!
Tim.
Has anyone considered decompilation (producing sources from binaries)
as a way of archiving system or application software that is defunct?
I know lots of people have disassembled ROM listings and created
commented ASM listings from the ROM, but what about larger systems
where hand-disassembly is impractical?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
My recent post re BBM manuals has left me with a bit of a
dilemma; I've got several more boxes of various manuals etc.
to dispose of and I'm not sure what's the best way.
On the one hand, it benefits everyone to have them in Al's
hands, who has the means, time and willingness (thanks, Al)
to make them available to us all.
On the other hand, anyone who actually owns the relevant
equipment would probably like to have original documentation.
When I put them up on the list, I'm inevitably going to disappoint
someone; should I just offer it privately to Al and rely on him, or?
Comments?
mike
you can do very well copying manuals and such with a
mini digital cam, if its allowed. Id loan you mine if
interested, no problem.
--- cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org
<dkelvey at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> ---snip---
> >
> > > A Cat is a machine I would also like, but I am
not
> > > going to find one at a
> > > price I can afford...
> >
> > Mine...$20 US. Plus shipping. Hope is not lost...
> >
>
> Hi
> I've been having fun hacking my Cat ( Canon ). It
was intended
> to be only an appliance machine but one can program
with it as well.
> There is a page on the web that says one can just
use the word
> "see" to decompile words but he must have had a disk
that someone
> typed that definition in with.
> I've been slowly hacking how to decompile and I've
made good
> progress. Still, there is so much to dig into. My
main reason is
> to make a printer driver for my HP 3si.
> I was just doing some searches on Jef Raskin and the
Cat and found
> that the Standford Library has manuals on the Forth
in the Cat.
> Too bad I can't just photo copy them. I do plan on
taking a
> day off soon and sit in their viewing room with a
lot of note paper.
> They also have a lot of information from Jef's
records on the Mac
> and Apple in general. Jef was an interesting fellow.
> The Cat is one of my favorite machines.
> Dwight
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com
Anybody have recent issues of Make? Somebody told me tonight that I'm
quoted, two or three issues ago, but I have no idea what that's about ....
So naturally I am feeling curious! Would appreciate if someone could look.
Thanks!
- Evan (Koblentz)
Random thought of the day....
I've seen a few CDs around where the manufacturer has deliberately included
errors on the disc to make piracy more difficult - which is a noble enough
thing to do, but a bit of a pain in the butt when you want to make a
legitimate backup copy of a disc :-(
Has anyone come across tools (Linux preferred, but I could stomach Windows if
I had to!) which can duplicate such discs and produce errors in the output at
the same block as the input? (I assume any software on such
deliberately-crippled media would check for the presence of known errors at
install / run time)
cheers
Jules
