BkTrees are pretty cool. This one is extremely alpha though, so... You should probably look elsewhere. It's pretty fast though, and that's pretty cool. Anyway, if you want to give it a shot just do something like this: ruby extconf.rb && make Or install it via rubygems: gem install bktree And using it is really simple. It only has two methods: require 'bktree' bk = BkTree.new bk.add 'foo' bk.add 'bar' bk.add 'baz' bk.query 'bor', 2 #=> [['bar', 1], ['baz', 2]] Have fun. Your pal, Tyler McMullen