how to "anonymize" Perl script before publishing it?

[Nomen Nescio]

I want to publish a few of my Perl programs on usenet but I don't want
it to be obvious who wrote them.

Any tips on "personal style" aspects of Perl that I need to watch out
for to depersonalize or anonymize them?

Thanks

 

[Paul Lalli]

I want to publish a few of my Perl programs on usenet but I don't want
it to be obvious who wrote them.

I'm afraid to ask, but why? Why are you concerned that people might
identify these programs with you?

Any tips on "personal style" aspects of Perl that I need to watch out
for to depersonalize or anonymize them?

Well, for starters, take out any comments that identify you personally.
After that, I would recommend reading
perldoc perlstyle
to see examples of generally considered *good* style.

Then you can download the Perl::Tidy module and the perltidy utility
(search CPAN) to reformat your code to a more standardized style...

I'm still worried about the root cause of your overall goal, however.
I can imagine two or three reasons one might want to disassociate
onesself from publically available code. None of them good...

Paul Lalli

 

[Ted Zlatanov]

I want to publish a few of my Perl programs on usenet but I don't want
it to be obvious who wrote them.

Run it through Acme::Buffy.

http://search.cpan.org/~lbrocard/Acme-Buffy-1.3/lib/Acme/Buffy.pm

(I'm joking)

Any tips on "personal style" aspects of Perl that I need to watch out
for to depersonalize or anonymize them?

Indentation, comments, and variable/subroutine names should be removed
and obfuscated respectively. Try a Perl obfuscator. I haven't used
any, but
http://search.cpan.org/~smueller/PAR-0.942/lib/PAR/Filter/Obfuscate.pm
could be useful.

Based on the data structures, modules, and flow control it's usually
easy to tell how experienced the author is. You can't hide this.

If you explain more about your reasons, and the possible audience of
your code who may want to find you, we could give you better advice.

Ted

 

[usenet]

I want to publish a few of my Perl programs on usenet but I don't want
it to be obvious who wrote them.

You can always use Acme::Bleach to 'clean up' your program:
http://search.cpan.org/~dconway/Acme-Bleach-1.12/lib/Acme/Bleach.pm

 

[Nomen Nescio]

You can always use Acme::Bleach to 'clean up' your program:
http://search.cpan.org/~dconway/Acme-Bleach-1.12/lib/Acme/Bleach.pm

Ha! I want the program which I'm donating to the public domain to be
readable and modifiable by other people.

 

[allenjo5]

Ha! I want the program which I'm donating to the public domain to be
readable and modifiable by other people.

You might also want to look at B:eparse:

perl -MO=Deparse yourprogram.pl

It reads the bytecode perl produces and creates a perl program out of
it.

 

[Nomen Nescio]

You might also want to look at B:eparse:

perl -MO=Deparse yourprogram.pl

It reads the bytecode perl produces and creates a perl program out of
it.

Yes, thanks!

 

[Nomen Nescio]

Well, for starters, take out any comments that identify you personally.
After that, I would recommend reading
perldoc perlstyle
to see examples of generally considered *good* style.

Then you can download the Perl::Tidy module and the perltidy utility
(search CPAN) to reformat your code to a more standardized style...

Good ideas, thanks!

 

[Jamie]

I want to publish a few of my Perl programs on usenet but I don't want
it to be obvious who wrote them.

Any tips on "personal style" aspects of Perl that I need to watch out
for to depersonalize or anonymize them?

Just release it with your name intact. If anyone actually picks on it,
at least you'll know they were interested.

I release some garbage, some good. With perl, I do it because I enjoy it and I
don't really care what others say. In the case of PHP and one or two perl
scripts, it's another story, that is strictly commercial. (business stuff
should have more quality put into it) Smaller web tools and such I put more
quality into.

For some things I do put a lot more effort into, for example anything that goes
on CPAN simply must have test cases and stuff for the CPAN module to work.

I've only done one CPAN tool. CPAN feels more like presenting yourself to a
judge for sentancing as opposed to actually being fun, I can understand
why it's like that, but it's not my idea of "fun" by any means.

My newsreader is an example of "fun garbage" more bugs than you can shake a
stick at. I'm a little embarassed but on the other hand, I do use it all the
time so it is usable, maybe someone else some year will contact me and ask for
the most recent copy I have. (my "home copy" has a lot of bugs fixed but at a
cost of bugs in things I don't use) It's purely for fun, as it should be. No
ones life depends on a newsreader. Fun is the motive, it's a very complex
piece of fun garbage.

You won't be improving anyones life or anything, if those are your reasons..
forget it!

Only reason for releasing anything is because you have a compulsion to do so.
No one cares about the author, no one cares about you. They care about how
whatever-it-is relates to their lives.

Just release it and develop a thick skull. (in the case of the "perl commmunity"
you really /NEED/ a thick skull!)

DO Take this with a grain of salt, doesn't always apply to everything.

Jamie