From: Tim Becker <a2800276@...>
Date: 2008-05-07T22:36:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Plans for compiling Ruby to binary bytecode?

>  My understanding is that Ruby internally uses a custom VM (virtual
>  machine) to execute.  This VM has its own set of instructions
>  (bytecode).

There are several different Ruby implementations:

* The 'default' is MRI (Matz's Ruby Impl), it's an interpreter, no bytecode
* The "Next Gen" MRI, the 1.9 series includes YARV, which is a VM
customized towards ruby
* There's Rubinius, which is a bootstrapped Ruby impl, written almost
entirely in Ruby, which uses custom bytecode as well
* JRuby is targeted towards JVM and (I think) can run either as an
interpreter or compile Ruby to Java bytecode.
* IronRuby is a CLI based Ruby Impl.

So, there's not just plans, the plans have long since been implemented
:) But the standard Ruby implementation currently doesn't use
bytecode.
Hope this helps,
   -tim