> I'm curious what native gems/extensions people are typically using. In 
> general it seems like most native extensions fall into two categories:
> 
> * They are wrappers around a C API/library, as in zlib, rmagick, nokogiri
> * They are written for performance reasons, to implement a particular 
> algorithm in a native language or call a library for the same reasons
> 
> And there's a lot of grey area, with some extensions falling in both 
> categories.
> 
> Wrappers can now largely be handled by FFI, and I hope more and more of 
> them will use FFI as needed to access those libraries. But I'm concerned 
> about extensions written for performance, since Ruby 1.9 and JRuby do 
> almost as much to speed Ruby up.
> 
> Ultimately, my quest is to eliminate Ruby's dependence on extensions for 
> things FFI or "faster Ruby" could do, since it will improve the future 
> for both the standard and alternative implementations.
> 
> So, what native gems or extensions do you use? Why do you use them or 
> why do they exist?
> 
> - Charlie

I use RUDL or Rubygame (SDL wrappers) to make games;
ruby-prof for profiling of these games, because pure Ruby profiler from the standard library slows programs too much down.

Jakub

-- 
"Configure complete, now type 'make' and PRAY."

                (configure script of zsnes - www.zsnes.com)