Nopecraft - was Re: OT: learner kits

[Tapley, Mark]

On Jun 19, 2015, at 10:55 PM, Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au> wrote:

> On 2015-06-19 11:21 PM, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove wrote:
>> On 19 June 2015 at 22:38, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Let him play Minecraft. Start with simple redstone contraptions, then
>>> move to command blocks.
>>> 
>> I'm not ashamed to admit I (24 y/o) play Minecraft now and again (with
>> friends on their own private servers). I'd suggest anyone serious
>> about trying to get someone "into" logic and programming with
>> Minecraft ...
> 
> ... NOT do that.
> 
> Sorry, had to be said.
> 
> Minecraft has nothing to do with logic or electronics and would just be an unnecessarily obtuse way of approaching it.
> 
> For an adult with too much time on their hands? Sure...
> 
> —Toby

“minecraft physics” is already a derogatory term around the house. And, whether I encourage it or not, he’s already into building complicated redstone sequencers. I’m hoping at least to expand his horizons into real-world projects.

Minecraft computing has the asset that his “logic” is easy to interface to the “real” (ack, spit!) world, so that makes me realize that a stepper motor or something similar (suggested in the original thread) is a pretty good idea to add to the stack at some point. 

Generally speaking, I’m with you, Toby, but we are already there trying to get back….