February 18, 2026

Spectragryph

This is well regarded (if you ignore the fact that it is licensed and the license no longer functions.

It is a Windows only, closed source product. There is mention of using "Wine" to run it on Linux. Too bad it wasn't open source, then we wouldn't be in the current mess.

You have to pay for this if you want to use it beyond the trial period. However, hold your horses! The author died and the license server no longer serves -- so If you paid you are up a creek without a paddle

Reverse Engineering

This could be my big chance to break into the software hacking world with a clear conscience. If have poked around just a bit and the odds are the Spectragryph is based on .NET and the microsoft byte code scheme.

Jet Brains "rider" is an IDE that you could use in lieu of Visual Studio from Microsoft. It is supposed to include a good .NET disassembler that will generate C# code from a DLL and perhaps an EXE.
It is free for non-commercial use!

It also seems to me that the linux "wine" windows emulator could be the basis of a tool to do reverse engineering. Maybe.

CIL

The Microsoft bytecode scheme is called CIL (common intermediate language):
Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Mineralogy Info / tom@mmto.org