A workaround for the gemname/version.rb practice that isn't broken exactly but I don't care for it.

something.gemspec

# coding: utf-8
lib = File.expand_path('../lib', __FILE__)
$LOAD_PATH.unshift(lib) unless $LOAD_PATH.include?(lib)

# require "something/version" <- hells no

Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  spec.name          = "something"
  spec.version       = "1.2.3" # <- makes sense here, right?
  # ... gemspec guts ...
end

something.rb

module Something
  # But what if I want Something::VERSION in the code?
  # No problem:
  
  def self.const_missing(constant)
    if constant == :VERSION
      require "rubygems"
      spec_location = File.expand_path("../../something.gemspec", __FILE__)
      spec = Gem::Specification::load(spec_location)

      const_set(:VERSION, spec.version.to_s)
    end
  end
end