4 ms·

This will ensure every web page application can be closed source then right?

by gech 9y ago

kpcyrd 9y ago
Minified javascript isn't really open source either.
- irrational 9y ago
  No, but there are tons of prettifiers that can get minified/obfuscated JS back into a state that it can be read and reasoned about fairly easily. It's not like minifiying/obfuscating JS compiles it into byte code. It's still plain text.
  - JeanSebTr 9y ago
    As we can use a decompiler with other languages.
  - striking 9y ago
    Barely! It's not far from bytecode in some cases, especially with the advent of asm.js.
  - bogomipz 9y ago
    Do you or anyone else have any recommendations for a good tool to recover minified java script?
    - chr1 9y ago
      http://jsnice.org http://jsnice.org works well, though misses many oportunities of restoring variable names based on property names which cannot be minified.
- Someone 9y ago
  Non-minified JavaScript with good comments documenting its behavior isn’t (necessarily) open source either. That you can read the code (or that it doesn’t claim a license) doesn’t make code open source.
  - kpcyrd 9y ago
    Sure, but that definition of opensource wasn't implied with "closed source due to wasm".
eikenberry 9y ago
Free software has never been about the technical possibility of something, but a moral and cultural value. I.E. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. So favor sites which don't obfuscate or make their (WASM) source code available as free software.
seangrogg 9y ago
Shouldn't it be possible to decompile from wasm to the language that was used to compile to it (or any target language that could've produced said wasm)?
- Crespyl 9y ago
  Only to roughly the same degree that it's possible to decompile x86/64 binaries to C or C++. It depends heavily on the specific optimizations and obfuscations used, whether or not debugging information was left in, etc. There's a reason the GPL has a "preferred form for editing" clause.
  - manigandham 9y ago
    It's better than that: http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-view-source-on-the-web http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-vi...
    - qweqweqweqw 9y ago
      Yeah, but is that actually required? I don't know much about this, but I'd guess 90% of websites will strip this just like debug info in most proprietary software, 9% don't know about this or forget to remove it, if it's included by default and 1% consciously decides to ship it for transparency.
      - manigandham 9y ago
        Then it's no different than minimized javascript...
rhizome 9y ago
You may be interested in this thread going on right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15958827 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15958827
manigandham 9y ago
Not necessarily, WebAssembly will support view source features: http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-view-source-on-the-web http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-vi...

This will ensure every web page application can be closed source then right?

by gech 9y ago

This will ensure every web page application can be closed source then right?

kpcyrd 9y ago

Minified javascript isn't really open source either.

irrational 9y ago
No, but there are tons of prettifiers that can get minified/obfuscated JS back into a state that it can be read and reasoned about fairly easily. It's not like minifiying/obfuscating JS compiles it into byte code. It's still plain text.
- JeanSebTr 9y ago
  As we can use a decompiler with other languages.
- striking 9y ago
  Barely! It's not far from bytecode in some cases, especially with the advent of asm.js.
- bogomipz 9y ago
  Do you or anyone else have any recommendations for a good tool to recover minified java script?
  - chr1 9y ago
    http://jsnice.org http://jsnice.org works well, though misses many oportunities of restoring variable names based on property names which cannot be minified.
Someone 9y ago
Non-minified JavaScript with good comments documenting its behavior isn’t (necessarily) open source either. That you can read the code (or that it doesn’t claim a license) doesn’t make code open source.
- kpcyrd 9y ago
  Sure, but that definition of opensource wasn't implied with "closed source due to wasm".

eikenberry 9y ago

Free software has never been about the technical possibility of something, but a moral and cultural value. I.E. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. So favor sites which don't obfuscate or make their (WASM) source code available as free software.

seangrogg 9y ago

Shouldn't it be possible to decompile from wasm to the language that was used to compile to it (or any target language that could've produced said wasm)?

Crespyl 9y ago
Only to roughly the same degree that it's possible to decompile x86/64 binaries to C or C++. It depends heavily on the specific optimizations and obfuscations used, whether or not debugging information was left in, etc. There's a reason the GPL has a "preferred form for editing" clause.
- manigandham 9y ago
  It's better than that: http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-view-source-on-the-web http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-vi...
  - qweqweqweqw 9y ago
    Yeah, but is that actually required? I don't know much about this, but I'd guess 90% of websites will strip this just like debug info in most proprietary software, 9% don't know about this or forget to remove it, if it's included by default and 1% consciously decides to ship it for transparency.
    - manigandham 9y ago
      Then it's no different than minimized javascript...

rhizome 9y ago

You may be interested in this thread going on right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15958827 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15958827

manigandham 9y ago

Not necessarily, WebAssembly will support view source features: http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-view-source-on-the-web http://webassembly.org/docs/faq/#will-webassembly-support-vi...