Thank you all so much for your informative comments.  I saved a 
few of them and read and re-read them in order so absorb all the 
good info.

I especially liked Mikkel's 'article' at:
http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/45787
Very informative!

I may just put off learning OCaml for the time being and 
concentrate on Ruby.  But I first would really like to be sure 
that Ruby will meet my needs for the foreseeable future.

It has been said that OCaml integrates well with C, and the same 
has been said for Ruby.  How about, does Ruby integrate well 
with OCaml or vice versy?

And finally, I will rephrase one of my original questions.  Does 
anyone know if the development plans for Ruby 2.0 still include 
a VM implementation?  If and when that does come about, will 
Ruby still be an interperter but with byte-code compilation 
abilities?

Please know that I am not trying to start any debate on the 
viability of any language over another.  I, for one, have had my 
quota filled recently. ;-)

TIA,
Terry