From: zero <web2ed@...>
Date: 2005-11-03T06:12:08+09:00
Subject: Compiled version of Ruby

I know this has been discussed before but I would like to know if
anything has changed in the past 2 years and if anything is on the
horizon that would allow either byte compilation of Ruby (like Python)
or <dreaming> native compilation </dreaming>.

Ruby is cool, but I don't want to use it for anything I am likely to
install on a user's machine because (1) I often don't want users to
muck with my code, and (2) sometimes I don't want them to (easily) see
my code.  I know that C#/Java can easily be reverse engineered, but
knowing that someone would have to go to such lengths to get to my code
is enough of a barrier to make me want to use one of those languages
over Ruby even though I have to write three times as much code for the
same task.

Don't get me wrong, I love Ruby, I'm not a troll.  I'm porting a site
to Rails...so I have a strong predisposition to advocate Ruby for all
things server-side.  I just want to be able to use Ruby in the space
where compiled languages tend to travel better than interpreted.  I
want to use Ruby for everything and would if I could just get byte
compilation.

-
ed