Minecraft is immensely popular. For teaching programming (to kids)
via Minecraft, the first option is Java, but that might be a bit heavy
for a pre-teen. A few lighter options are Lua via Computercraft [1]
and Javascript via Scriptcraft [2].
I've tried Computercraft and its quite interesting the way it
simulates real-life computers and drones, but the drone works slowly
so my kids end up doing things faster themselves.
I am in the initial stages of trying Scriptcraft (with Spigot server)
and making walls, buildings etc is fast, so hopefully my kids will see
value in using these superpowers.
But then I wondered whether it might be possible for SqueakJS and
PharoJS to interface with Minecraft via the Javascript engine. I was
interested to discover that the JVM comes with a Javascript engine
built in [3], "Rhino" [4] for JVM7 and faster "Nashorn" for JVM8 [5].
So I thought I would just seed the idea in the community to see if
anyone might be interested to pursue this. It really would be
fantastic to use our environment to make mods for Minecraft. (The
actual plan for world domination is to build some assets and
experience with minecraft, and then migrate to a pure Smalltalk 3D
client and server with GPU backends when that becomes available
-gnomes)
Or maybe it would be better to use JNIPort[6] or JavaConnect[7] or
something else.
cheers -ben
[1]
http://www.computercraft.info/2016/04/01/computercraft-and-computercraftedu-1-79/[2]
http://scriptcraftjs.org/[3]
https://github.com/walterhiggins/ScriptCraft/blob/master/docs/Using-Java-APIs-In-Javascript.md[4]
https://jaxenter.com/scriptcraft-hacking-minecraft-for-kids-105467.html[5]
https://www.infoq.com/articles/nashorn[6]
http://smalltalkhub.com/#!/~JNIPort/JNIPort/[7]
http://www.squeaksource.com/JavaConnect
Locked
