What language will protect my source code?

Question

I wish to create shareware software that contains a registration algorithm. I am looking for a programming language, that cannot be easily decompiled into readable code. For example, C# can be decompiled into readable code.

What are my options?

Edit: I'm looking for something that can be only decompiled into assembly. Delphi, for example, cannot be decompiled like C# or Java, but from what I've heard, Delphi is dying.

Answer 1

Delphi is not dying, it is alive and well.

As is the community, at delphifeeds.
You can also see more delphi projects, Freeware, shareware and commercial at the Delphi Wikia.

Thus I'd say Delphi is a very good choice for Software Development. Freeware, Shareware or Commercial.

Update: On September 1st 2011 Embarcadero released Rad Studio XE2. This released adds 64 Bit Compilation, Livebindings, Native Mac OSX compiling, IOS (via XCode) and a whole lot more to the already powerful delphi Dev environment.

Answer 2

If your CPU is able to see the code and run it, by definition, a sufficiently talented person can do it too.

You can, however, make it harder by running your code through an obfuscator.

Answer 3

I'd suggest the language of business and economics can protect your program.

If you are targeting consumers, and price it at say $10, almost all people would find it easier to pay you the $10 vs going into your program and reverse engineering it.

If you are targeting corporations, and say pricing it at $10,000, it just has to be easier to get the purchasing department to approve the payment than to reverse engineer your code. For real companies who would purchase your product, it's not worth the audit risk to have unlicensed code running.

Lastly, what are the costs/benefits of protecting your code? If you write your program in assembly instead of C#, you might have far higher production costs, while reducing the chance of reverse engineering. However, does this cost outweigh the potential lost sales? Could this time be better spent adding value for people who will buy the product? Generally, trying to sell your product to people who are never pay for software is not a economic strategy.