From: Conrad Schneiker <schneiker@...>
Date: 2001-11-30T05:55:16+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:26961] Re: Vote in the current poll!

"Conrad Schneiker" <schneiker@jump.net> wrote:

> > Basically do you think there is a market for a Ruby compiler and binary
> > tools?
>
> Maybe when Ruby becomes widely enough used that ActiveState supports it.
>
> My guess is that, at present, the overwhelmingly primary motivation for
> wanting compiling to a binary is to facilitate distribution and deployment
> of Ruby programs without having to install (and keep up to date) other
> stuff,

And also so that you can ship applications without the source code.

This last feature might attract many more commercial Ruby developers, and
thus might eventually help to create a viable sub-market for a commercial
Ruby compiler. (For this purpose, compilation to byte code is probably
sufficient, but being able to ship a self-contained binary application would
still be advantageous.)

Conrad