Application-specific Decompilers

There are a number of applications that generate an intermediate (low level) code, which is interpreted by a virtual machine. With some applications this low level code is put inside an executable (e.g. Java bytecodes). Writing decompilers for these intermediate low level code is often much easier; intermediate code is the assembly language of the virtual machine. Examples are:

MultiRipper a Windows and Delphi/C++ Builder ripper by Baccan Matteo and Peruch Emiliano. A "ripper" program extracts files inside other files. MultiRipper extracts files from Windows and Delphi/C++ Builder applications. For windows applications it extracts windows resources and saves them onto disk, and for Delphi/C++ Builder applications it recovers the Delphi project and code. MultiRipper is not a decompiler, as it does not recover the source code of a Delphi application, however, the authors are working on this for a future release (current release is 2.6). To run MultiRipper
```
mrip myapp.exe
```
where myapp.exe is your test program. Documentation is available, in Italian, in file mrip.doc, and in English in file mrip.eng.
SourceAgain a Java decompiler by Ahpah Software. SourceAgain correctly recovers Java control structures and optimizations from the bytecode. Further, it supports irreducible graphs, polymorphic type inference, recognition of packages, and more, and provides debugging support. PC and Unix versions of SourceAgain are available with prices ranging between U$99 and U$299.
ReFox 7.0 is a decompiler by Xitech for restoring source code from FoxBASE+, FoxPro 1.x, FoxPro 2.x and for Visual FoxPro executables or compiled modules. (The information given in the FoxPro programming FAQ is out-dated.)
Alexander Lobanov's FoxPro decompilers for version of FoxPro 2.0, 2.5/2.6. Demo versions of the software are available, these programs are distributed in shareware mode.
The Visual Basic 4 decompiler can decompile files generated by the Visual Basic compiler; accessible from the DoDi VB tools page. See also the Defeater program.
The Java Code Engineering and Reverse Engineering home page has details on Java disassemblers, decompilers, and more.
The Decaf decompiler for Java .class files written in Ada95. Decompilers to Ada95 and Smalltalked are worked on.
The Mocha decompiler for Java .class files. You can use crema to scramble symbolic information in the .class files.
xla2xls.exe is a self-extracting archive with an add-in which can decompile XLA's to XLS Excel 5 and 7 workbook files, so that code can be read or modified. This was sent to me by Razvan Anghel.
PCBoard Programming Language eXtractor 2.00 is a BBS system, and PPL is it programming language. Programs in PPl are compiled to an intermediate binary format before they are interpreted by the PCBoard software. PPLX is a decompiler for binary PPL programs which does a very good job at reconstructing the original control-flow using `if', `while', and `case' statements.
Sculptor and Realizer: news is that two decompilers were written in Spain: The first is a decompiler written in 1989 for a 4th generation language called Sculptor (also referred to as Sage and Sagerep), for the development of information systems (that is similar to a context-free RPG II). This is a true case in which the development of a decompiler was required due to a huge loss of the originals and backups of an important program. The company for which it was developed exists no more.
The second decompiler is for Computer Associates Realizer 2.0, which is the Visual Basic of Computer Associates (considering Visual Objects is their xBase product). Realizer is very close in everything to VB 3.0 and surpasses it in included components, being overall superior, but it didn't got so much popularity: it includes reporter, screen painter, configuration control and version tools (these tools were written in Realizer itself) and features custom controls, databases and ODBC, etc. This language is scarcely used now.
Besides, a try was made to develop a decompiler for COBOL as a hobby project, but it was abandoned due to a lack of knowledge of COBOL.

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