VB Decompiler

[sweeney]

I'm looking for a VB Decompiler...is there such a thing? I made this program, then lost the project modules, and its too big to just write all over again.

[Anthony]

ONly if you wrote it in version 4.0. Being able to decomplie a VB project would be a huge security hole....

[Plasma2002b]

well what files DO you have?


if you just have the exe then forget it.... but what do ya have?

[harra]

I've looked for a VB decompiler for a long time without much success. I have had no problem finding Java/C++ decompilers, but not VB

[Master Jedi]

VB 3 and 4 can be decompiled. I've seem places that will decompile VB 5 and 6 programs into assembler for exorbitant fees. You can't really get the code from the exe's because it's not contained in the exe. Just the logic is there.

[harra]

It's a shame because you can get decompilers for C++ and Java for free and they will give you line-by-line code (minus the comments)

[Master Jedi]

Yeah, but if the Java code has been obfuscated, you don't get the variable names back so the code can be realy hard to follow.

[harra]

OK, now I feel real stupid. What is obfuscated code? Is it some form of encryption?

[Master Jedi]

When you obfuscate the compiled Java code, it prevents the variable names from being recovered by a decompiler.

[harra]

I guess nobody's .class files that I have decompiled have obfuscated their code. I've gained a reputation on the job for "reverse engineering" our vendor's code when they refuse to fix something. I decompile the code, find their bug, report the bug and when they refuse to fix it, I fix it for them. Fortunately for me, the vendor knows what I do and don't care.

[Master Jedi]

For the most part Java programmers don't care. If they have any experience than they know it's easy to decompile and it's not worth the effort to obfuscate it (because the code can still be retrieved...most decompilers will assign variable names for you).