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By I've had a lot of positive feedback from readers for including Heroku in Learning Rails. Its web-based interface is the easiest way I know to get started with Rails programming without getting trapped in installation challenges.
They're changing gears a bit now, though, as they move into the business of selling Rails deployment. I'm happy to report that they still have the free web-based Rails interface, but it's moved to a new URL: herokugarden.com.
I'll be updating the errata for Learning Rails as well as the First Steps into Rails (on Heroku) screencast as soon as get a moment!
I'm also looking forward to exploring their deployment options. Phusion Passenger (aka mod_rails) made deployment a lot easier for me, but just switching the application on seems even nicer.
I don't think the screencast got ever updated, and HerokuGarden is now not supported anymore. Hopefully they'll come up with an alternative quick web-based interface.
I didn't upgrade the screencast, but alas, the interface seems to have completely gone away now. It was a great idea in its time, despite a few glitches, but I'm not really sure how to put a positive spin (for fans of the Web UI) on:
"The scalable and extensible nature of Heroku also breaks the live editing features of Heroku Garden. We are investigating options to bring live editing capabilities to Heroku in the future."