Reverse Engineering

Phil_aka_Pip

A product requires revision. I did not design or write the original, but because I have redefined the message format and protocol, this product must be revised. It was written in PIC assembler . The code looks like it was neatly done by someone who understood very clearly what he was doing. Comments are meaningful, but a little sparse. The design of the algorithm is highly coupled to the architecture and instruction set of the PIC, which I am having to learn with the data sheet open in another window while I'm reading the code.

No wonder my brain is feeling bashed at the end of a working day. Am I too old for this? Don't answer that!

siremoon

I have to do a lot of that sort of thing.  I wasn't too old for it when I started but now .....
:-?

Repeatedly proves to me that there's no such thing as too many comments in a bit of code

maltingsaudio

Full respect to you Phil I don't even understand what your talking about but if it doesn't involve lifting, getting cold, and there's a toilet nearby don't see why you can't keep doing it till you drop  

Jalapeno

Insanely jealous ....

Code whodunnit was extremely satisfying once you nailed it ! I am lord of all I survey etc

Myranda

I have thought about putting my mind to learning coding with the intention of reverse engineering stuff - I do like pulling things apart to see what makes them tick... it's just a shame I'm not always so bothered about putting them back together... 

Luckily I'm an only child

Jalapeno

Depends - reverse engineering high-level languages from machine code is a right pain

Phil_aka_Pip

Its OK if you know how the language is implemented. Forget "optimising" compilers! C - 68k machine code is not only elegant but great fun.

Edit: why did 68k architecture have to get superseded by others that weren't half so nice? why is it that only crap architectures survive when they damn well didn't ought to?

Myranda

Probably is... but I do so love tampering with things...

Maybe a project for the future - for now am knee deep in network/data sec/hacking learning anyway... not much room for more learning in my brian for now.

Jalapeno

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Its OK if you know how the language is implemented. Forget "optimising" compilers! C - 68k machine code is not only elegant but great fun.

Edit: why did 68k architecture have to get superseded by others that weren't half so nice? why is it that only crap architectures survive when they damn well didn't ought to?

That's easy.  In a word Motorola

Phil_aka_Pip

They perpetrated the demise of their own best contribution to computing?