Don't look at VERSION file - encode it directly in the code

lib/prototype_project/version.rb

@@ -1,27 +1,9 @@
 module PrototypeProject
   module Version
-    class << self
-      def string
-        @string ||= File.read(File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../../VERSION").chomp
-      end
+    MAJOR = 0
+    MINOR = 0
+    TINY  = 0
 
-      def major
-        version_parts[0]
-      end
-
-      def minor
-        version_parts[1]
-      end
-
-      def tiny
-        version_parts[2]
-      end
-
-    private
-
-      def version_parts
-        string.split(".").map { |part| part.to_i }
-      end
-    end
+    STRING = "#{MAJOR}.#{MINOR}.#{TINY}"
   end
 end

spec/prototype_project/version_spec.rb

@@ -3,19 +3,19 @@
 describe PrototypeProject do
   describe "VERSION" do
     it "should be at 0.0.0" do
-      PrototypeProject::Version.string.should == "0.0.0"
+      PrototypeProject::Version::STRING.should == "0.0.0"
     end
 
     it "should have major as 0" do
-      PrototypeProject::Version.major.should == 0
+      PrototypeProject::Version::MAJOR.should == 0
     end
 
     it "should have minor as 0" do
-      PrototypeProject::Version.minor.should == 0
+      PrototypeProject::Version::MINOR.should == 0
     end
 
     it "should have tiny as 0" do
-      PrototypeProject::Version.tiny.should == 0
+      PrototypeProject::Version::TINY.should == 0
     end
   end
 end