[Zope] Zope Products without Sources

[Dylan Reinhardt]

>From: "Marc Roland" <mroland@aicat.de>
> > So. How can we hide the sources from curious people?

There's exactly one way to do this well: maintain control of the file system.

He who has root owns Zope and all that comes with it.  That includes any 
code done in Python and all data saved in ZODB.

Where I've felt any particular proprietary interest in my code, I've 
arranged to structure the payment as an ongoing service contract, not as a 
one-time contract programming purchase.  I do application hosting mostly, 
but in one case, I have a client who is using *my* hardware on their 
LAN.  I don't worry about obscuring my code or protecting against client 
"improvements" because I'm the only person who can get at it.

This is a good arrangement for the client, as it makes the cost of entry 
lower and pretty much everyone knows what a pain it is to use software that 
lacks service and support.  Hosted apps aren't usually what customers think 
they want, but it's not that hard a sell if you provide some kind of 
code/password escrow to protect the customer against your untimely demise 
and/or bankruptcy.

You may also find that the value of your code is enhanced by opening it 
up.  But that's another discussion... :-)

HTH,

Dylan