When you buy software, the source code usually is not made public, but doesn’t your computer still have to run the code to use the software? How can it run the code without allowing the user to see the code?

Question

When you buy software, the source code usually is not made public, but doesn’t your computer still have to run the code to use the software? How can it run the code without allowing the user to see the code?

In: Technology

Answer 1

The code is compiled into machine code, a language that your computer can read and understand. You could try to read the machine code and understand what it does – that’s [reverse engineering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering) – but it is a difficult process. For example, the original source code contains a lot of data that is only useful for the programmers, such as comments and function and variable names, which are stripped when the code is compiled. Sometimes the code might even be [obfuscated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obfuscation_(software)) which adds another layer of complexity to the code.

Besides, “open source” usually doesn’t just mean that the code is available, it also means that the code is legally free to use (with or without certain limitations).