.txt language

[5614]

Take any .exe file and convert it to .txt by simply renaming it (you can only do this if you can actually see the extension in the first place, enabling this can be done through My Computer > Tools > View > in 'Advance Settings' box deselect the 'Hide extensions for know files types') and then open the new .txt file. You will see loads of characters such as this:

 

t&ƒþ:u‹FĉFî+À‰FƉFÄÇFìÿÿ¿p ¾0 ë
ÇFì þ†Tþ€¾Tþ uVÿFìDЙFÄVƃ~¼ tÿNþuéxÿÿFêÿvè‹ðë8ö„ tƃÿouƒþ8}¼°PFÄPè²ë³¸
™RPFÄPè€ë£ÿNêVÿv

 

All the squares like this are characters which probably are not even part of the Unicode character list, at least I cannot use them on SFN... so it's basically a long .txt file which means absolutely nothing to me.

 

My questions are these:

 

1) Does this 'language?' mean anything to anyone? (Other than the computer), I'm effectively asking if you can program in this language or if someone could read it and tell you what the program is/does?

 

2) What language is it?

 

3) Could this be converted into C (& family) or VB or some such which people can actually program in?

 

4) If #3 is yes then would this coding be encrypted somehow to stop you stealing it, converting to another used language and modifying/copying the program without copyright holder's permission?

[the tree]

1) Does this 'language?' mean anything to anyone? (Other than the computer), I'm effectively asking if you can program in this language or if someone could read it and tell you what the program is/does?

No, what you are looking at is the result of using the wrong program to look at a file, you'll get something very similar if you try opening an image file in notepad.

2) What language is it?

Since not all of it can even be "translated" into these characters, it's really nothing, if you hit save and then afterwards change it back to an .exe you'll find that it doesn't open.

3) Could this be converted into C (& family) or VB or some such which people can actually program in?

It can't but there are such things as decompilers wich are slow, complicated and often illigeal to actually use. Proffessors and other clever folk make them from time to time but really just for the sake of it.

4) If #3 is yes then would this coding be encrypted somehow to stop you stealing it, converting to another used language and modifying/copying the program without copyright holder's permission?

Decompiling is so amazingly difficult that this really isn't a worry. Of course when it comes down to it all source code is accessable in theory and any attempt at further encyrption (wich would really just be distortion) would just make the program less efficient.

[albertlee]

2) What language is it?

 

the idea here is, the file you open with notepad is always transribed into characters along with a charset, eg, unicode, ASCII, utf, etc... and different charset will yield different characters.... the file you open probably is just raw bytes, which, when transcribed into characters, is nothing more than a junk.......

 

4) If #3 is yes then would this coding be encrypted somehow to stop you stealing it, converting to another used language and modifying/copying the program without copyright holder's permission?

 

yeah, some programmer use a socalled obfuscator to obfuscate their codes along with complilation to make it even more difficult to be reverse-engineered...

 

 

hope it helps...

[5614]

Since not all of it can even be "translated" into these characters, it's really nothing, if you hit save and then afterwards change it back to an .exe you'll find that it doesn't open.

That's a true point (I just tried it) about saving/reconverting. But why???

 

It is the same program and has identical characters every time you convert it (I just tried it). So why can you not save/reconvert it? It might be useless code but it is what makes up the file when oppened in notepad, surely recompiling it within notepad and then converting it would work, it doesn't, but I can't see why not!??

 

I'm aware you get a similar effect if you covert any file type to .txt. I just assumed that this was the code for the file, sure a code no one can understand, but still a code, so it would work wherever it was compiled, recompiled or saved as long as it was the correct code, but this is not the case. I really didn't expect that to happen!

 

??WHY??

[albertlee]

to 5614, the reason why you cant reopen the file that are bytes instead of characters after saving it with notepad is because some "characters" in the charset do not appear as character, but instead a specific function....

 

for example, a byte, 8 in decimal form, in ASCII charset means "backspace". Now as I said, it's pretty much a junk when you transcribe a byte data into characters. Virtually the notepad does a "backspace" on the data, and when you repoen the file again in byte form, the file is probably corrupted due to the missing data "backspace"ed by the notepad....

 

Only my hypothesis...

 

hope it helps :-D