This is a great gateway drug for getting kids into coding.
The JS language also allows a transition to html5/web stuff (cool web pages they and their friends can see with some simple-to-setup hosting) and perhaps ultimately server side (nodejs).
And a child walking that path would then be exposed to enough ideas/different environments that learning a different language would be a natural next step.
This is a pretty exciting idea. I wonder how easy it can be made. i.e. I wonder how much of the distracting tool-based detail can be swept to one side.
I'm currently introducing my 10 year old niece to programming using ComputerCraft, a single player mod that introduces several programmable objects in to the Minecraft world. Installing is a bit of an exercise, because it requires Forge, but it is otherwise worth it. I recommend using MCPatcher to load Forge, then just drop the ComputerCraft zip in to the /mods folder inside your Minecraft data folder.
One of the downsides of the diversity in the Minecraft modding community is that it can be difficult to identify the "best" way to do something. New tools come and go, and compatibility wanes when new releases hit.
The JS language also allows a transition to html5/web stuff (cool web pages they and their friends can see with some simple-to-setup hosting) and perhaps ultimately server side (nodejs).
And a child walking that path would then be exposed to enough ideas/different environments that learning a different language would be a natural next step.
This is a pretty exciting idea. I wonder how easy it can be made. i.e. I wonder how much of the distracting tool-based detail can be swept to one side.