The converter's going open source once I figure out what that means. - Page 3

B Dids · #21 04-08-2005, 04:02 PM

My guess is enough where's it's pushing the boundaries of silly for him not to take it.

Given the traffic it generates, it would be a goldmine for an affiliate to have it.

MoreWineII · #22 04-08-2005, 05:27 PM

[ QUOTE ]
My guess is enough where's it's pushing the boundaries of silly for him not to take it.

Given the traffic it generates, it would be a goldmine for an affiliate to have it.

[/ QUOTE ]

w3rd, it's gotta be a tidy sum.

CORed · #23 04-08-2005, 05:52 PM

Binaries aren't really an issue because this is a perl program. Perl is interpreted (or, stricly speaking, run-time compiled). The source code is the program, and you need the perl interpreter on your machine to run it.

Definitions for non-programmers:

Compiled program: A program called a compiler creates a binary executable from the source code. Programs written in C, C++ and Visual Basic (to name just a few languages) are compiled. Most commercial, proprietary software is compiled. Binaries can be distributed without source code.

Interpreted program: The source code is converted to executable code by an an iterpereter program when the program is run. Depending on the language, this may be done one line at a time (pure interpreted) like DOS/Windows batch files or UNIX shell scripts, or the entire program may be converted to executable code in memory, then executed when the program is launced (Java and perl work this way).

david050173 · #24 04-08-2005, 06:33 PM

There is also no reason that a hand history parser has to live on a web site. I believe there is a tool which packages up perl scripts into windows executables. If you really care about your privacy you would want to be using that type of tool.

Honestly I don't see this as being super valuable code as I am guessing that 10-20 hours for someone that understands regular expressions and HTML (or whatever output language you want) seems very reasonable. What that means is that I would expect most commmercial companies to just avoid your code if it is GPL (it isn't worth aggravation of dealing with the gpl (you have to factor you app to prevent having to release your IP)).

Now having that website is some prime advertising real estate for someone targeting serious poker players....

bisonbison · #25 04-08-2005, 07:43 PM

Yeah, most companies can avoid the code, but if the task is as easy as you say they are also going to enjoy precious little advantage. Which I think is nice, since poker players, serious or not, get targetted with enough crap as is.

Saint_D · #26 04-09-2005, 02:11 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I believe there is a tool which packages up perl scripts into windows executables. If you really care about your privacy you would want to be using that type of tool.

[/ QUOTE ]

This won't protect your source code. Interpreted languages are hard to obfuscate the code for. I am not a big fan of obfuscation for a variety of reasons. Attaching an open source license to the code will protect you more than any technological trick.

The tool is in the perl toolkit from activestate in case you want to know. It's kinda cool really.

-D

kenberman · #27 04-09-2005, 09:59 AM

hope you got yer laptop

bisonbison · #28 04-09-2005, 04:50 PM

Ok, I've started a project at sourceforge.net, and I'll let you guys know once the project is approved, at which point you can all start cannibalizing my code for your own nefarious purposes.

Once the project is up, we can start discussing on sourceforge who would like to lead development, and how builds will be selected to be freely hosted at handconverter.com.

david050173 · #29 04-10-2005, 03:10 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I believe there is a tool which packages up perl scripts into windows executables. If you really care about your privacy you would want to be using that type of tool.

[/ QUOTE ]

This won't protect your source code. Interpreted languages are hard to obfuscate the code for. I am not a big fan of obfuscation for a variety of reasons. Attaching an open source license to the code will protect you more than any technological trick.

The tool is in the perl toolkit from activestate in case you want to know. It's kinda cool really.

-D

[/ QUOTE ]

I was talking about protecting the user from the website not the code. As I said, the code doesn't have ton of value but it is nice to not have to reinvent the wheel. Note when I say the code isn't valuable I mean in a monetary sense not in the sense of being usefull.

Forbin · #30 04-10-2005, 04:39 PM

Since this is a service hosted on a web site, your code will not be getting as much "protection" from the GPL as you might think. Under the GPL people are required to make their changes available only when actually distributing a modified version of a program, and providing a web based service using the program does not constitute distribution. So any affiliate/forum website could take your code as a base and make a bunch of improvements, putting this improved version up for use on their site, without contributing those improvements back to your original project. It's a "loophole" that they are considering changing in the next version of the GPL.

Open source softwre is a good thing though. I still think you should release it under the GPL and not worry about anyone copying it. Someone, somewhere will eventually copy it and use it in a non-friendly way, but so what? Like a few people have pointed out, take one person familiar with regular expressions, PHP (or perl), and HTML, feed them a couple hand history files from each site, and ~10 hours later you'd get equivalent functionality.