eli5 How exactly is the source code of an app/software being “locked”? What is protecting it from being seen?

1.02K views

eli5 How exactly is the source code of an app/software being “locked”? What is protecting it from being seen?

In: 26

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Source code is like the blueprints of a building. An app is like a finished building. Sure, you can look at a building and even tear down some walls to look at the plumbing, structure, etc. and make some guesses as to what the blueprints look like but you won’t know exactly what they are or more importantly why they are the way they are. Same applies to an app, you can look at its internals to see what it’s doing but it’s really hard to guess what the source code looks like from that.

TL;DR: software doesn’t usually contain its source code. Source code is just instructions for a computer to build an app.

Note: for some apps, especially those written in JavaScript, you CAN see the source code.

You are viewing 1 out of 12 answers, click here to view all answers.