obfuscation - Can I encrypt PHP source or compile it so others can't see it? and how?

Question

I need to encrypt some PHP source that I've released to the public.

Is this possible? Can PHP be "compiled" ?

Answer 1

You can have a look at phc which can generate executables from PHP. It also has some other options to create C-code, XML, optimized PHP, etc. from the original PHP source.