I thought not including these was a feature! Is there a compelling reason to put these in the gem?

Heh, maybe :)

I use http://github.com/adamsanderson/open_gem to view gem source, rather than figure out the gem's source, download/clone it, etc. So "gem open machinist" was the command I ran to discover no tests/docco etc.

Another way people can get a project's source and run its tests is "gem unpack machinist".

So +1 for full source in a .gem from me :)

You've sold me. I'll fix it when I get a spare moment.

At least it sort of prompted me to add "gh clone --search" to the github-gem project :) http://drnicwilliams.com/2009/11/04/hacking-someones-gem-with-github-and-gemcutter/