Consider using mapnik C bindings?

[gravitystorm]

There's an alternative approach to creating a mapnik rubygem at https://github.com/scooterw/ffi-mapnik and I've heard reports that it works fine. If so, then perhaps we should ditch Rice and use that approach instead.

[systemed]

There's also https://github.com/geoconcerns/simple_mapnik which seems to be moderately actively developed.