If anyone is interested in producing a new, intermediate tutorial on
rails, I''d suggest something along these lines:
Start with an html/css mockup of an interface design. It''s
doesn''t do
anything yet, but it looks like the final app will look, with dummy
data. Ideally this app should be something moderately useful, like an
inventory tracker or address book. Not another blog! ;-) Doesn''t
have to be too complicated, but should have a few different models
that interact with each other, and several different areas on the page
that you can interact with.
Then start making the parts of that page "real". Show how you would
pull apart the html page into it''s different components, and create
the models, controllers, helpers, etc and go in and make the page
start to actually work. Ideally this would feel like you are looking
over the shoulder of an experienced rails developer as they take a
mockup and transform it into an app. To keep the scope of the
tutorial reasonable, there can be parts of the design that aren''t
implemented for real in this tutorial (like a User name and logout
link), and are left "as an excercise for the reader".
Then include both the mockup version and final version of the app for
download, so folks can play along at home.
The Depot app in the Rails book is sort of like this, but I''m thinking
of something that is more design-driven (starting with an interface)
than functionality-driven (starting with models/controllers, and
adding an interface to them as you go).
- Isaac
