Ruby on Rails Screencast - Iteration 2 - Amy Hoy
In the previous screencast David Heinemeier Hansson impressed upon me the importance of deciding what it is I want to build. 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 and showed it to my next 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 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.
The screencast itself ran into some technical problems...no - scratch that - it was self-inflicted again. That being said, I hope you get as much out of the conversation as I did (plus it was a whole lot of fun :)
Hi, I'm Miles K. Forrest. I'm a wannabe coder trying to forge my own path through the software design world jungle. Although I'm not a great programmer, I've met many folks who are. I hope these screencasts encourage you to keep hacking away at Ruby on Rails and to have fun.
iTunes
Loved the second video, Amy's blog got me into rails woas good to hear about her process.
Would love to see a video on deploying your Rails app, I'm still working through the Agile book but deployment seems to looming as some horror in the background.
I love it! Keep it up and don't change a thing; the "fireside chat" style is a breath of fresh air (so is showing your mistakes!). Although you should get crackin' already ;)
I hope people have said this to you, but I can help to say that you are really funny!I have just finished two episodes of your video with DHH and Amy Hoy. I just raised the same question as you mentioned in the screencast, "how a dummy like you can find those 'big guy' to do screencast with you??" . No offensive!!! And I just realized that your personality is really great. Thank for all the work and putting together such interesting stuff.
Keep on the good work. I will keep an eye on you ! :)
Congrats Miles! I have really enjoyed your first two Screencasts about Rails. Please keep it up!
As Andy said, I also would be intrestef in Capistrano and deployment of Rails as it is really something new for me and I think worth mastering.
Miles,
I just watched your 2 screencasts. They were very good and I think your on the right track. Learning RoR as a new programmer is hard and I still feel like I am missing or not getting something, I hope your next screen cast helps me.
Just a hint on the next screencast, Shorter and more on topic is better.
Thanks
superb! Being a peepcode junkie, I really like the 'light'-ness of your screencasts. We're still getting practical info, but the "fireside chat" - as seems to be the developed term ;) - is a welcome change to the uber productive, watch-at least-10-times-to-really-get-everything screencasts that Geoffrey makes. Do keep it up!
When is there going to be another screencast? If you cant get a guest I think you should show us how use get Capistrano to work
Patience young grasshopper, patience! I've got a great lineup of guests however the main problem is time. I have a full-time job and a family to support. Whatever extra time I have (which isn't much) is spent here.
Sorry I'm not able to put out episodes quickly as I or others would like, but if you're not completely satisfied I'll give you a full refund ;-)
Hi Miles,
great job on the screen casts. You really know how to entertain the viewers. I followed both screen casts intensively (really weird, given my short attention span and the length of both your casts) and had a few good laughs as well.
Nice song by the way, I play it every morning since I've discovered it! It really makes my day :-)
I look forward to the new episodes. Could you give a sneak preview on the lineup?
Greetings, all the way from Belgium!
Bye,
Stijn
Hi Miles,
Really enjoyed both of your screencasts. Can't wait for the others to follow.
DesertFox
Miles, this was awesome, mess ups and all! I love Amy's blog, and it was great to see how she gets started. I'd have to agree with you about beautiful code. I can't stand having messy code! So hard to read/follow, even my own. That's one of the things drawing me to Ruby. Keep up the great work.
Miles,
I really enjoy the work you are doing. I am rowing the same boat in a sense. My infatuation with Ror began 1/19/06 when I saw DHH’s 15 min blog. Since then I’ve picked up HTML, CSS etc... I was at CanadaOnRails last April as well. In your talk with Amy Hoy you mentioned that you are strong in Deployment/Subversion. Do you have any sort of documentation or direction I need to go in to learn this. My poor buddy has been setting me up on his servers.
Rich
I love your screencasts! Keep them comming :)
Hey Miles, I really love your screencast. It's got me thinking again. I found myself a project to digg into and I started coding right away. After seeing your show, that's on hold now until I'm finished drawing on paper what I want to do. Any idea when Iteration 3 is coming?
Very nice screencast. I'd love to see another. The coolcatteas is a project my daughter is working on with a little help.
Really great screencast. Looking forward to see the next one.
I would love to see a video on deploying your Rails app. If you can post a link i would owe you one.
Miles cmd+tab is call application switcher or apps switcher :)
P Staker
Thanks! I knew it had to have a name.
Thanks for these very valuable screencasts - I think I'm still a bunny!
However I am enjoying this screencast very much and appreciate the discusion on how to design. The conversation about how we think reminds me - have you read tony busans work - e.g. mind maps?? Very apt i think.
I haven't read or seen Tony Buzan, but I have used mind maps for years. I'll look him up and have a look.