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Distributing software updates without revealing code? — Parallax Forums

Distributing software updates without revealing code?

Jack BuffingtonJack Buffington Posts: 115
edited 2010-10-06 17:42 in Propeller 1
I am curious if there is a way to send a software updates to my clients for them to burn into their propellers without having to send them the source code. If I were doing this with a PIC chip for example, I would send them a .HEX file. They can burn it into their device and things will be updated but I don't lose job security by revealing the inner workings of how the software works. In my current situation, I need to send the update to a third party, who is not my client but I can also foresee situations where I would have written a snazzy piece of code that does something pretty unique that I don't want to be revealed to anyone as it would be code that I wrote on my own that makes myself or my company more marketable than another.

I guess that this isn't in the spirit of freely sharing code that goes on in this forum but from a business perspective, it is pretty necessary.

Comments

  • wjsteelewjsteele Posts: 697
    edited 2010-10-06 15:37
    You can just send the compiled BIN file and upload that to the device using the Propellant library.

    Bill
  • John AbshierJohn Abshier Posts: 1,116
    edited 2010-10-06 15:39
    I haven't acutally done this, but I think this will work.

    Compile you program and then click show hex. The click Save EEPROM.
    Send the EEPROM file to client.
    Client opens Propeller Tool and select file open, changes type to Propeller Applications. The hex view has a button for Load EEPROM.

    John Abshier
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2010-10-06 15:40
    Jack, you would compile the binary and save an .eeprom or binary file, which is not the source code. You can then do several options(including the Prop Tool or BST option already mentioned), one being to create an application that uses bstl as a command line loader to program the chip and/or eeprom. If creating your own app, you can customize the GUI with your own logo and style, with only the buttons needed for locating the serial port, loading the binary/.eeprom file, load to ram, or load to eeprom.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2010-10-06 15:42
    You can also download a .BIN file using PropTool.

    Of course someone could decompile but its a bit of a pain to do and you don't get comments.
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2010-10-06 15:43
    The .eeprom file that you would export is the same file that will be on the EEPROM, so either way, someone can extract the binary and do whatever they want to do with it.
  • Jack BuffingtonJack Buffington Posts: 115
    edited 2010-10-06 16:12
    Thanks everyone! I had poked all through the menu bar. I didn't expect it to be somewhere else in the interface.

    -Jack
  • hover1hover1 Posts: 1,929
    edited 2010-10-06 17:42
    See my reply in this post:

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=919524&highlight=Propellant+batch+file#post919524

    Jim
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