How To: Build web applications with Ruby on Rails

It's difficult to learn programming in the abstract. By building something I need and care about I can learn piecemeal, asking just the questions I need to solve the next step.

So I wrote down what I want to build with Ruby on Rails and showed it to my guest Amy Hoy. It became clear pretty quickly that I need to go back to the drawing board - literally! Amy's advice is to separate the design and coding phases. Then design first. Her pragmatic approach put me at ease and I learned it's not all about the Ruby on Rails tools. It's about being creative and getting ideas out of my head and in front of me so they can be worked and reworked into something cool.

Watch this Ruby on Rails screencast and become well acquainted with Ruby on Rails programming.