Subject Re: dBASE PLUS 2.8 compiled file formats? From Ken Mayer <dbase@nospam.goldenstag.net> Date Wed, 24 May 2023 20:39:42 -0700 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started On 5/24/2023 3:15 PM, Dennis Hoover wrote: > Me again with the old dBASE custom application questions. > Does anyone have any information on the binary format of the .PRO files? Like layout, headers, structs, etc? > > Do they contain native (like x86/etc) instructions? Or is it intermediate bytecode i.e. java/.NET style? is there any instruction set reference? or maybe something comparable we can look at as a starting point? > > Any info you have on the internals of that file format you can share would be super-helpful. You can just dump it on me, I will sift through it. To the best of my knowledge no one has successfully uncompiled/decompiled dBASE's .pro/.wfo/etc. files. That was the point when the format was determined years ago. Otherwise a dBASE developer could distribute a .pro to a customer, that customer could decompile it back to source code, and modify the code ... thereby making it possible for the original developer to lose business/customers/intellectual property, and so on. The difficulty then is that of course if you don't have the source code, as I understand you don't, then the programs will need to be re-created in dBASE. Ken -- *Ken Mayer* Ken's dBASE Page: http://www.goldenstag.net/dbase The dUFLP: http://www.goldenstag.net/dbase/index.htm#duflp dBASE Books: http://www.goldenstag.net/dbase/Books/dBASEBooks.htm dBASE Tutorial: http://www.goldenstag.net/dbase/Tutorial/00_Preface.htm dBASE Web Tutorial: http://www.goldenstag.net/dbase/WebTutorial/00_Menu.htm dBASE DOS to Windows Tutorial: http://www.goldenstag.net/dbase/DtoWTutorial/00_Menu.htm