Learn to Program with Minecraft Plugins: Create Flaming Cows in Java Using CanaryMod

What a great idea! My sons are totally Minecraft obsessed, (as so many kids seem to be at the moment), and so the idea of using this interest to sneakily teach them a bit of programming seemed brilliant to me. This book utilises Bukkit libraries which are currently unavailable for use, (happened about the same time as I bought the book!), but by visiting their website at http://pragprog.com I was able to prove ownership of the book and download a digital copy of the new edition of the book which uses the CanaryMod libraries. The guys at PragProg were very helpful about this. The new edition of the book is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Program-Minecraft-Plugins-CanaryMod/dp/1941222943/ref=dp_ob_title_bk and seems little changed apart from bits of code concerning the libraries.My sons are completely LOVING this book so far! They are aged 8 and 10 and, although the 10 year old is grasping the concepts more quickly they are both having equal amounts of fun and are really thrilled when their coding attempts produce results. There is a little bit of setting up at the start of the book - installing text editors and various other bits of software and, after attempting to do this on one computer with an eager 10 year old bouncing away at my side, I decided that this administrative bit is much easier done in peace! After that, though, the book quickly heads off into coding...but manages to make it understandable and not too daunting, (no mean feat in my opinion!). Within a few half hour sessions they have created plugins that print out messages on-screen, make creeper noises and automatically build houses and it's great to see them starting to grow in confidence and say "I wonder if I can...". Not only is it great to see them having fun attempting to code, but it's been really lovely to spend time with them doing this - definite quality time together - and it's teaching me some new things too!I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to introduce their kids, (or indeed themselves), to Java programming and it's especially useful if they're already into Minecraft. I think that this book tackles the introduction of programming in a really nice way as it gets you busy doing things right from the start and introduces new concepts gradually as you go along so it never feels all that daunting. Get it!! :)

This is an excellent way to teach children or anyone interested in minecraft to program java plugins. The book is extremely clear in its instructions and I love the general style of teaching. The problem, however, is that the book requires the download of software from 'Bukkit' which has been withdrawn at the moment as one of its developers are having a legal dispute about property rights with Mojang (developers of Minecraft). This has led to the software being unable to be downloaded possibly indefinitely.

Book is good BUT you need the newer version (v2) that uses CanaryMod rather than CraftBukkit as the latter is no longer available!

Bukkit library it uses is not available for download anymore due to license dispute, new version uses another library with verbose APIs.

The Program that it requires is no longer available and not likely to be in the near future

I bought this so I could show my kids a little of what I do professionally, as I'm a Java developer. My kids *love* minecraft & love the whole mod scene around it, so with a little luck I'll get them doing some mods of their own. This book is pitched so that any kid of about 8ish onwards, with a bit of motivation, can set up a simple development environment & step through the various examples, & get enough of an idea about what they're doing that they'll be able to make up some mod ideas of their own.