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I won't bore you with the details, but we had software developed by another company and all they provided us with was the .dll

It's not the most stable of company so we are thinking of bringing the development in house. They want to charge us for the source code...but we would rather not.

As such, I would like to know if there is a way, based upon the program that we currently see running, and without documentation on the environment, is there a way to tell:

1) What version of .NET it is running on? 2) C#.NET or VB.NET? 3) What version of SQL Server it uses? 4) Any other pertinent information we might be able to find out about the environment and coding behind the actual program we see running.

Thanks

Ann Sanderson
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  • How do you *use* that DLL? You reference that DLL in your own code? you drop that in a plugin folder? host it on IIS? What purpose does that DLL serve? – inquisitive Dec 12 '13 at 15:07
  • There are tools that decompile. Redgate has one. – paparazzo Dec 12 '13 at 15:17
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    You are asking for help with violating the copyright owned by that company. There's only one kind of proper advice: don't do it, get a lawyer involved. – Hans Passant Dec 12 '13 at 15:36
  • An assembly is not C# or VB. Don't steal. – Emond Dec 12 '13 at 15:41
  • @HansPassant I assumed with the statement of "had software developed" that they paid for it and own the rights but the source code was being withheld. Agree need to consult a lawyer. – paparazzo Dec 12 '13 at 16:07

1 Answers1

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I give you an answer but remember, your company may be liable for your actions. You should need an explicit, written permission to use source code from your vendor unless it is open source. Almost every company I worked in, used 3rd party libraries and for small money they received the source code license from the vendor and we were able to modify and compile it. Even if you de-compile the code from IL, it will not be compile-ready. You will still need to code.

1) What version of .NET it is running on?

Set reference to that Dll and in reference properties look for "Runtime Version"

2) C#.NET or VB.NET?

I don't think it is possible because code compiled into IL.

3) What version of SQL Server it uses?

You can't really. You can approximately. Same data access components connect to multiple versions. They have minimum supporting version, so you may know that it connects to Sql Server 2008 and 2012, for example. I am not sure about the details.

4) Any other pertinent information we might be able to find out about the environment and coding behind the actual program we see running.

Honestly, I don't even see first 3 questions helpful because if you plan develop yourself, you can develop for any framework, you can develop in any language, you can connect to any DB. If you want to steal their code, again, you don't need to know anything of these, really. Even if you want to code against Oracle, it will not be much different.

T.S.
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