Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Mike Easter Newsgroups: alt.computer.workshop,comp.sys.mac.system,uk.comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: What does "Reinstall macOS" do, exactly? Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:38:34 -0700 Lines: 45 Message-ID: References: <66c36920$0$1428140$882e4bbb@reader.netnews.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net hpYba79MbqAl5oIDCPoDWQVoEzzIY67xFa5/GFoxTPsHPzICeT Cancel-Lock: sha1:OGDRH1cO67/h8Ol34by6PtUwnVk= sha256:cuych6Ej8Wxj2SL7qtdv2WVM3hE+J5YeklBH0QV7Ha4= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Content-Language: en-US In-Reply-To: Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.mac.system:144955 uk.comp.sys.mac:179560 BDB wrote: > I have found no-one yet who has reverse-engineered EtreCheck. > This combination of statements leads me to believe that BDB doesn't have a good grasp of what 'reverse-engineered' means in the context of software. > Folk have *NO CLUE* as to what they are loading onto their computer > when they use it. This part implies that what BDB thinks he is talking about is something along the lines of 'knows *exactly* what E'Chk is doing to do what it 'does'. But that isn't what reverse engineering would mean for s/w. If one were going to 'reverse engineer' E'Chk, they would create a software which performs the same duties as E'Chk w/o having any access to E'Chk's source code. This 'type of' mistaken thinking is because BDB has a theory that E'Chk is 'nefarious'. What would be helpful to dispel that theory would be if BDB or someone who is actually capable of reading the source code had access to that. JD implies that he would make such source code available to someone, but not just with the conventional license he provides. > This License does not grant you the right to access to the source > code of the Software. If, in certain circumstances, such access is > desired by you, you may enter into a separate license with Etresoft. The wp article on reverse engineering has an extensive section on what the term means in the case of software and distinctly addresses the issue of source code as part of the discussion. If BDB weren't so daft in the head about how he 'interprets' JD and his software that causes him to simply 'make things up' to misrepresent anything he encounters in that sphere so as to appear delusional he might be able to 'see things' like a normal person, instead of whatever he is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Software -- Mike Easter