From wollny@cns.mpg.de Mon, 13 Dec 1999 14:12:29 +0100 (CET)
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 14:12:29 +0100 (CET)
From: wollny@cns.mpg.de wollny@cns.mpg.de
Subject: [Patents] Re:  Re: source vs binary.


On Mon, 13 Dec 1999, Jean-Jacques de Jong wrote:

> Nick Fleming wrote:
> > 
> > Why should there be a distinction between binary and source ?
> > Many languages are interpreted rather than compiled, and
> > modern executables usually contain enough debugging information
> > to be viewed + understood (if not completely)  with a dissassembler.
> 
> Simply because source code is human readable whereas binary code is not.

It may be difficult for humans to read binary code, but one can translate
it to a more readable form (and a real may even understand the plain
hex-code for some special machine). Many device drivers under i.e. linux
exist only due to such process also known as reverse engineering. 
"source" and "binary"  describe only a state of abstraction of the
description of an algorithm.











