Learn to Program with Minecraft: Transform Your World with the Power of Python

383 Pages·2015·12.9 MB·English

by  Craig Richardson

LEARN TO PROGRAM WITH
®
MINECRAFT
TRANSFORM YOUR WORLD WITH THE
POWER OF PYTHON
BY CRAIG RICHARDSON
San Francisco
LEARN TO PROGRAM WITH MINECRAFT. Copyright © 2016 by Craig Richardson.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
Printed on demand in USA.
ISBN-10: 1-59327-670-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327670-6
Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Riley Hoffman Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson Developmental Editors: Hayley Baker
and Tyler Ortman Technical Reviewer: John Lutz Copyeditor: Anne Marie Walker Compositor: Riley
Hoffman
Proofreader: Paula L. Fleming For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No
Starch Press, Inc. directly: No Starch Press, Inc.
245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: [phone];
than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in
an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the
trademark.
Minecraft is a registered trademark of Mojang Synergies AB, which does not authorize or endorse this
book.
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution
has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any
liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by the information contained in it.
To the countless adults and children that read the early drafts of this book, used
my recipe cards, and attended my talks and workshops: thank you so much for
your enthusiasm and support. This book is for you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Craig Richardson is a software developer and Python educator. He has worked
for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, taught high school computing classes, and led
many workshops on Python programming with Minecraft.
ABOUT THE TECHNICAL REVIEWER
John Lutz is a math teacher in the New Orleans public school system, where he
also teaches extracurricular courses on Scratch, Arduino robotics, and 3D
printing. He piloted his school’s computer science program, which continues to
grow and attract bright new minds to coding. Since helping with this book, John
is working on a Python program that will destroy all baby zombies in his
Minecraft world, forever.
BRIEF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Setting Up for Your Adventure
Chapter 2: Teleporting with Variables
Chapter 3: Building Quickly and Traveling Far with Math
Chapter 4: Chatting with Strings
Chapter 5: Figuring Out What’s True and False with Booleans
Chapter 6: Making Mini-Games with if Statements
Chapter 7: Dance Parties and Flower Parades with while Loops
Chapter 8: Functions Give You Superpowers
Chapter 9: Hitting Things with Lists and Dictionaries
Chapter 10: Minecraft Magic with for Loops
Chapter 11: Saving and Loading Buildings with Files and Modules
Chapter 12: Getting Classy with Object-Oriented Programming
Afterword
Block ID Cheat Sheet
Index
CONTENTS IN DETAIL
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Why Learn to Program?
Why Python?
Why Minecraft?
What’s in This Book?
Online Resources
Let the Adventure Begin!
1
SETTING UP FOR YOUR ADVENTURE
Setting Up Your Windows PC
Installing Minecraft
Installing Python
Installing Java
Installing the Minecraft Python API and Spigot
Running Spigot and Creating a Game
Starting Over with a New World
Playing Offline
Switching to Survival Mode
Setting Up Your Mac
Installing Minecraft
Installing Python
Installing Java
Installing the Minecraft Python API and Spigot
Running Spigot and Creating a Game
Starting Over with a New World
Playing Offline
Switching to Survival Mode
Setting Up Your Raspberry Pi
Getting to Know IDLE
Getting to Know the Python Shell