I have IDA Pro, but Ghidra may also be an option. You're unlikely to ever get the source back, but this year I have used IDA to reconstruct the screwed up backups of old Pascal programs, which, given that they were written in Turbo Pascal V3, a totally non-optimizing compiler, turned out to be rather easy, but also pretty time-consuming. The FLIRT technology used by IDA may help, and Hex-Rays also has a decompiler that builds C code from the disassembly, although the generated code may be hard to understand.
Robert On Fri, 4 Nov 2022 at 16:54, Steve Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > Question: How difficult is it to reverse engineer it (SPF/PRO, or > whatever)? > > Can it be "disassembled" back into some resemblance of the > original source language or some other source that matches a > currently supported compiler? > > If the answers to either of the above is yes, then the question > of legality needs to be addressed. What constitutes, legally, > abandonment such that the contracts (should they have a reverse > engineering clause of some kind) would be void? > > Figured it was time to ask these questions. > > Regards, > Steve Thompson > > On 11/4/22 12:16, Seymour J Metz wrote: > > What broke my heart was that I will never be able to buy Tritus SPF 3.0, > and the source code for 2.8.8 is unavailable. I'll stop using it when they > pry it out of my cold, dead fingers. > > > > ________________________________________ > > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on > behalf of David Cole <[email protected]> > > Sent: Friday, November 4, 2022 11:55 AM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: SPF/Pro crashes (was SPF/SE is available ...) > > > > I am a die-hard SPF/pro user! There is no other PC based editor I've > > tried that serves my needs as well as SPF/Pro. (I never did care for > > SPF/SE, so Pro was where I settled.) > > > > Sadly, at the time it was orphaned by Command Technology, SPF/Pro > > still had several bugs, including total crashes that sometimes even > > damaged its global files to the point where it would refuse to restart! > > > > However, there was no other editor I tried that I liked as much as > > SPF/Pro. So over the years, I have developed strategies that minimize > > both the occurrence and consequences of the crashes, including an > > easy recovery from the occasional destruction of the global files. > > > > Today, I still use SPF/Pro, and my productivity boost from it remains > > quite high. > > > > Anyway, a few years ago, I took the time to write a comprehensive > > in-house document with specific discussions of the kinds of problems > > and failures that can occur, how to avoid or mitigate them and how to > > recover when they do occur. > > > > In light of the news of the death of Mr. Tetivia, and the permanent > > loss of the SPF/Pro source code, I have decided to release my "Notes, > > Comments and Cautions about Using SPF/Pro" as a pdf. > > > > Temporarily, you can find the pdf at my personal website: > > "dbcole.com/misc/usingspfpro.pdf". > > > > Be aware... dbcole.com is a bare bones, old school Apache accessed > > website with no extra security on it. Eventually, we will be moving > > the pdf to somewhere at colesoft.com. I'll post again when that happens. > > > > > > I hope some of you will find this document useful. > > > > > > > > This is a sad loss. > > David Cole > > President > > Colesoft > > > > PS: Michael Knigge, I have the binary for SPF/Professional 5.0.4. As > > far as I know, this is the last published release of SPF/Pro. Do to > > want/need it? -dbc > > > > > > > > > > > > > > At 11/1/2022 03:01 PM, Schmitt, Michael wrote: > >> [snip] > >> > >> I really don't know why CTC made the big break from SPF/Pro to > >> SPF/SE. I still like SPF/Pro much better, but as I said, it crashes > >> on newer Windows more than SPF/SE (which for version 3.5 also > >> crashes). SPF/Pro just now crashed on me with MEM_BAD_POINTER from > >> SmartHeap Library. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- Robert AH Prins robert(a)prino(d)org The hitchhiking grandfather <https://prino.neocities.org/index.html> Some REXX code for use on z/OS <https://prino.neocities.org/zOS/zOS-Tools.html> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
