Dotfuscator community edition
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Virtually a case study in how *not* to promote your software by giving away a free version I've used quite a few different ones and since this one was included I thought I'd fire it up (reinstall of visual studio later), it's probably got the most horrible interface of any I've tried and to make it worse instead of hiding the features that aren't in the community edition they show like 500 different features in a series of tabs with most of their controls disabled so you know what you're missing I guess. It's like they just took their command line app, took every possible switch for the command line and made a gui with all those switches in tabs as controls instead, no elegance, no automation whatsoever. So to sum up, it's ugly, it's unintuitive, it's way behind the times in UI design, it's free but doesn't do anything for anyone that would likely want or need to use it and it has a nag screen telling you why it sucks and you should buy the professional version which apparently is this same brain dead interface but enabled. It's also one of the most expensive ones out there.:wtf: When will developers start to learn that the interface matters as much or more than the functionality. Anyone else have a preferred obfuscator for .net besides XenoCode, CodeVeil or Dotfuscator?
John Cardinal wrote:
It's like they just took their command line app, took every possible switch for the command line and made a gui with all those switches in tabs as controls instead, no elegance, no automation whatsoever.
Bit like the wget GUI here[^]? Except with tabs. That'll make it all better then X|
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John Cardinal wrote:
It's like they just took their command line app, took every possible switch for the command line and made a gui with all those switches in tabs as controls instead, no elegance, no automation whatsoever.
Bit like the wget GUI here[^]? Except with tabs. That'll make it all better then X|
I :love: wget. But that is a hideous interface.
And I get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again
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Virtually a case study in how *not* to promote your software by giving away a free version I've used quite a few different ones and since this one was included I thought I'd fire it up (reinstall of visual studio later), it's probably got the most horrible interface of any I've tried and to make it worse instead of hiding the features that aren't in the community edition they show like 500 different features in a series of tabs with most of their controls disabled so you know what you're missing I guess. It's like they just took their command line app, took every possible switch for the command line and made a gui with all those switches in tabs as controls instead, no elegance, no automation whatsoever. So to sum up, it's ugly, it's unintuitive, it's way behind the times in UI design, it's free but doesn't do anything for anyone that would likely want or need to use it and it has a nag screen telling you why it sucks and you should buy the professional version which apparently is this same brain dead interface but enabled. It's also one of the most expensive ones out there.:wtf: When will developers start to learn that the interface matters as much or more than the functionality. Anyone else have a preferred obfuscator for .net besides XenoCode, CodeVeil or Dotfuscator?
Why does it have so many options anyway?
Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Velopers, Develprs, Developers!
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
Linkify!|Fold With Us! -
Virtually a case study in how *not* to promote your software by giving away a free version I've used quite a few different ones and since this one was included I thought I'd fire it up (reinstall of visual studio later), it's probably got the most horrible interface of any I've tried and to make it worse instead of hiding the features that aren't in the community edition they show like 500 different features in a series of tabs with most of their controls disabled so you know what you're missing I guess. It's like they just took their command line app, took every possible switch for the command line and made a gui with all those switches in tabs as controls instead, no elegance, no automation whatsoever. So to sum up, it's ugly, it's unintuitive, it's way behind the times in UI design, it's free but doesn't do anything for anyone that would likely want or need to use it and it has a nag screen telling you why it sucks and you should buy the professional version which apparently is this same brain dead interface but enabled. It's also one of the most expensive ones out there.:wtf: When will developers start to learn that the interface matters as much or more than the functionality. Anyone else have a preferred obfuscator for .net besides XenoCode, CodeVeil or Dotfuscator?
I quite like Spices.Obfuscator[^].
the last thing I want to see is some pasty-faced geek with skin so pale that it's almost translucent trying to bump parts with a partner - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before. -
I :love: wget. But that is a hideous interface.
And I get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again
I usually use curl rather than wget for some reason - except when I'm leeching a website - then, its
wget -np -r _url_all the way!!! -
Virtually a case study in how *not* to promote your software by giving away a free version I've used quite a few different ones and since this one was included I thought I'd fire it up (reinstall of visual studio later), it's probably got the most horrible interface of any I've tried and to make it worse instead of hiding the features that aren't in the community edition they show like 500 different features in a series of tabs with most of their controls disabled so you know what you're missing I guess. It's like they just took their command line app, took every possible switch for the command line and made a gui with all those switches in tabs as controls instead, no elegance, no automation whatsoever. So to sum up, it's ugly, it's unintuitive, it's way behind the times in UI design, it's free but doesn't do anything for anyone that would likely want or need to use it and it has a nag screen telling you why it sucks and you should buy the professional version which apparently is this same brain dead interface but enabled. It's also one of the most expensive ones out there.:wtf: When will developers start to learn that the interface matters as much or more than the functionality. Anyone else have a preferred obfuscator for .net besides XenoCode, CodeVeil or Dotfuscator?
John Cardinal wrote:
When will developers start to learn that the interface matters as much or more than the functionality.
Microsoft realised this a long time ago. It's one of the reasons why they've been so successful. First make it pretty and easy to use. Make it functional and robust later.
Kevin
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You forgot to add that it can be cracked by a child.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Why does it have so many options anyway?
Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Velopers, Develprs, Developers!
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
Linkify!|Fold With Us!Because they didn't consider the Task the programmer wanted to accomplish, instead they considered all the possible options that could be used and just threw them up on the screen. I'm guessing it grew that way starting with a simple dialog, every time they found a new feature that had to be added to deal with a particular situation they went back to the good old dialog and added every switch for that feature as a control on a new tab.
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John Cardinal wrote:
When will developers start to learn that the interface matters as much or more than the functionality.
Microsoft realised this a long time ago. It's one of the reasons why they've been so successful. First make it pretty and easy to use. Make it functional and robust later.
Kevin
That's not entirely fair, I think what's more accurate is Micrsoft realized that the user interface sells software and is the end users primary means of evaluating how good software is. After all they brought the GUI to the 80xxx pc they have a certain responsibility to keep up with. They made it just as functional and robust as anyone can when they release software. Programmers have a hard time in general dealing with the concept that the interface is probably the most important part of the software. To the end user it's a given and expected that the software will perform it's job, the end user couldn't care less about that, they just expect it to do whatever it should, they judge it based on how easy and intuitive it is to use. Programmers in general are in love with the details, the technical aspects that underpin the UI, the UI is often the last thing to get designed in many applications, it should be the first.
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Cracked? What do you mean by that? It's an obfuscator, there's nothing to crack is there?
To unobfuscate to a degree that renders the original obfuscation immaterial.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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That's not entirely fair, I think what's more accurate is Micrsoft realized that the user interface sells software and is the end users primary means of evaluating how good software is. After all they brought the GUI to the 80xxx pc they have a certain responsibility to keep up with. They made it just as functional and robust as anyone can when they release software. Programmers have a hard time in general dealing with the concept that the interface is probably the most important part of the software. To the end user it's a given and expected that the software will perform it's job, the end user couldn't care less about that, they just expect it to do whatever it should, they judge it based on how easy and intuitive it is to use. Programmers in general are in love with the details, the technical aspects that underpin the UI, the UI is often the last thing to get designed in many applications, it should be the first.
John Cardinal wrote:
They made it just as functional and robust as anyone can when they release software.
What I was trying to capture here was the well-established MS pattern of version 1 being poor but version 3 being usable. :)
John Cardinal wrote:
they judge it based on how easy and intuitive it is to use.
Yes, and this is frequently overlooked by techies.
Kevin