Re: anyone interested in decompilation

glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu>
8 Aug 2006 23:59:50 -0400

          From comp.compilers

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Re: anyone interested in decompilation dcorbit@connx.com (2006-08-03)
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Re: anyone interested in decompilation gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2006-08-08)
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Re: anyone interested in decompilation gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2006-08-14)
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From: glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 8 Aug 2006 23:59:50 -0400
Organization: Compilers Central
References: <1154507032.629515.108580@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com> 06-08-017
Keywords: Java, disassemble
Posted-Date: 08 Aug 2006 23:59:50 EDT

dcorbit@connx.com wrote:


> QuantumG wrote:


>>Decompilation is the process of recovering human readable source code
>>from a program executable. Many decompilers exist for Java and .NET as
>>the program executables (class files) maintain much of the information
>>found in the source code. This is not true for machine code
>>executables however.


JVM isn't all that different from many machines. I think it is more
the exception model of Java that prohibits many optimizations that
otherwise might confuse decompilers.


>>In recent years decompilation for machine code has moved from the
>>domain of crackpots and academic hopefuls to a number of real
>>technologies that are available to the general public.


It is likely specific to a specific version of a compiler,
and will depend on the optimizations that the compiler does.


(snip)


> P.S.
> You can't turn the DNA of a dead cow back into a cow. That sort of
> thing only works on "Jurasic Park" movies.


There are people working on the Woolly Mammoth, though the probability
might not be so high. I would expect that some extinct organism will
be brought back in the not too distant future. It depends a lot on
the quality of the DNA, and finding a similar enough living organism
as an egg source.


-- glen



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