They are not really providing Ruby code, but writing their code in C
and providing a binary compiled into a DLL that Ruby can load. I am no
fan of closed source but this provides an option if someone wanted to
sell components useable from Ruby.

The components *do* also provide something useful I think, if you
can't write your own and need a solution right now. I'm pleased people
are thinking about Ruby support for such things while we wait for an
open source version.

Les