To assume that no one will write a method of their own sooner or later to dechipher the code back to an original readable format is in my opinion to attempt to hide from reality.

If you're on a ship that just hit something that ripped a large hole in it and was now sinking and the Captain and Crew are now asking you to man life boats and you just hide in your stateroom pretending it is not happening, is about the same type of mentality as I see it.

Also similar reasons that Jens has stated.

1. You write a cool logon script and it is working great then you accidentally drop the original readable version into a file shredder program along with some other files. Now you no longer have the original and have to start all over from scratch. Or some other Admin deletes that original accidentally as you Company mandates that all shared code is kept on one location. What ever the case, this is just an idea to get a point accross.

2. One of your Admins is laid off or let go but is now PISSED OFF and leaves a time-bomb like a script that schedules a task on all systems desktop and server that now on a certain day and time deletes every thing it can in the registry and overwrites all files it can with 0-byte size files. I don't care how nice of an organized shop you run, IF something like that were to happen it would take a LONG time to recover from the damage inflicted. However, if the code was in readable format it would be much harder to hide such an act.

3. You are hired on at a new Company and the VP says he really LOVES the script the last guy wrote and all it working great just the way they want it, but he wants to add just a couple little items to the original. Well, without the original or without being able to restore to readable format your kind of stuck.

Perhaps allowing something like during setup of the program it is "signed" or pass-phrase etc first before the EXE can be used. Then only Admins with this pass-phrase can decipher the tokenized code. Then if an Admin is let go, the process can re-code a new EXE and replace the file on the Servers so that that Admin won't know the new pass-phrase. I myself don't view this as a "SECURITY TOOL" so much as I see it as an added measure of protection to prevent non admins from knowing what is going on in the script if wanted. Just because KiX will now support Obfuscation does not mean all Companies will use it either.

It also may be possible that in some Countries it "might" be illegal to support Obfuscation without a means to restore the original source. Possibly opening a means of litigation against Ruud. (not that they would have any legal recourse against him, but something to ponder I guess)

I'm sure this is a subject that as with most other subjects that not EVERYONE will agree with each other.

Regardless of what or how Ruud moves forward with supporting this hopefully no one runs into any real problems with it in the future.