I've downloaded and installed InstantRails (v2.0) on Windows all as Appendix A (pages 129 and 130). I then proceeded to work through Chapter 1 and create the simple 'Greeting' application.

the book says 'Edit the new controller at the path app/controller/greeting_controller.rb'

In fact, the path is 'app/controllers' (i.e. plural) and in order to edit the new controller, I've figured out you have to type 'edit greeting_controller.rb'.

Also, when I do edit the Controller, exactly as Example 1-1 on page 12, I don't get the 'Welcome to your first Rails application' message, but instead I get the message 'SyntaxError in GreetingController#index
C:/InstantRails/rails_apps/chapter-1/app/controllers/greeting_controller.rb:3: unterminated string meets end of file
C:/InstantRails/rails_apps/chapter-1/app/controllers/greeting_controller.rb:3: syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting kEND'

Also, according to the middle of page 14, the index file that gets created should be 'app/views/greeting/index.rhtml'. However, in my case the file is 'app/views/greeting/index.html.erb'. Is this is an error in the book, or has the software moved on?

Personally, I think it's poor to find these eroors and inconsistenies on the very first chapter of a book designed to get the reader 'Up and Running' on Rails. I am not up and running on Rails and don't think ever will be if I follow your book.

The database scaffolding code on p23 does not specify an id field, but the photos.yml presented assumes an id field. So, on pg 24, rke db:fixtures:load fails.

<%= drop_receiving_element('slideshow-photo-picker',...

must be

<%= drop_receiving_element('slideshow-photos',...

(tested with Rails 2.3.4)

All draggables will else freeze and leave the developer to wonder what is wrong for a long time.