ComputerCraft and ComputerCraftEdu 1.79

If you’re browsing this site, you probably know about ComputerCraft, but do you know about ComputerCraftEdu? Developed last year, ComputerCraftEdu is a streamlined, user friendly version of ComputerCraft designed for schools, learning, and first time programmers. Find out more here. As of today, ComputerCraftEdu is available for Minecraft 1.8, along with a new ComputerCraft update which fixes a few bugs discovered during the porting process. Enjoy!

Downloads

ComputerCraft 1.79 requires Minecraft version 1.8.9 with an up to date 1.8.9 version of Minecraft Forge installed. ComputerCraftEdu 1.79 requires ComputerCraft 1.79 to be installed first. Once you’ve installed Forge, drop the jar files into your .minecraft/mods/ directory, and launch Minecraft with the new Forge profile.

Changelog

  • Ported ComputerCraftEdu to Minecraft 1.8.9
  • Fixed a handful of bugs in ComputerCraft
  • Removed MS-DOS support

Special Thanks

Like ComputerCraft itself, porting ComputerCraftEdu to Minecraft 1.8.9 took a considerable amount of work, work that would not have been possible without the support of TeacherGaming LLC. It’s always been a pleasure working with TeacherGaming, and if you’re unfamiliar with them, you should check out their site to find out more about what they do. If you have a vested interest in ComputerCraft and you’re interested in sponsoring future versions of the mod, get in touch.

Thanks also to everybody who helped with beta testing this update. Thanks to some thorough testing and quality bug reports, we’ve fixed a number of issues in this update.

Happy Programming!

ComputerCraft 1.78

You should know the drill by now: new Minecraft version, new ComputerCraft update! Apart from compatibility with Minecraft 1.8.9, this update also adds some frequently requested configuration features.

Downloads

ComputerCraft 1.78 requires Minecraft version 1.8.9 with an up to date 1.8.9 version of Minecraft Forge installed. Once you’ve installed Forge, drop the ComputerCraft Jar file into your .minecraft/mods/ directory, and launch Minecraft with the new Forge profile.

Changelog

  • Ported to Minecraft 1.8.9
  • Added “settings” API
  • Added “set” and “wget” programs
  • Added settings to disable multishell, startup scripts, and tab completion on a per-computer basis. The default values for these settings can be customised in ComputerCraft.cfg
  • All Computer and Turtle items except Command Computers can now be mounted in Disk Drives

Enjoy!

ComputerCraft 1.76

Four years ago today, I released the first version of ComputerCraft for Minecraft version 1.0. Today, thanks to some generous sponsors, I’m releasing the first version of the mod for Minecraft 1.8! As well as targeting a new Minecraft version, this new version of ComputerCraft features inter-dimensional modems, international text support, new graphical capabilities, and many new possibilities for Command Computers. Read on!


Monitor image made using the BLittle API

Downloads

ComputerCraft 1.76 requires Minecraft version 1.8 with an up to date 1.8 version of Minecraft Forge installed. Once you’ve installed Forge, drop the ComputerCraft Jar file into your .minecraft/mods/ directory, and launch Minecraft with the new Forge profile.

Changelog

  • Ported to Minecraft 1.8
  • Added Ender Modems for cross-dimensional communication
  • Fixed handling of 8-bit characters. All the characters in the ISO 8859-1 codepage can now be displayed
  • Added some extra graphical characters in the unused character positions, including a suite of characters for Teletext style drawing
  • Added support for the new commands in Minecraft 1.8 to the Command Computer
  • The return values of turtle.inspect() and commands.getBlockInfo() now include blockstate information
  • Added commands.getBlockInfos() function for Command Computers
  • Added new “peripherals” program
  • Replaced the “_CC_VERSION” and “_MC_VERSION” constants with a new “_HOST” constant
  • Shortened the length of time that “Ctrl+T”, “Ctrl+S” and “Ctrl+R” must be held down to terminate, shutdown or reboot the computer
  • textutils.serialiseJSON() now takes an optional parameter allowing it to produce JSON text with unquoted object keys. This is used by all autogenerated methods in the “commands” api except for “title” and “tellraw”
  • Fixed many bugs

Special Thanks

Porting ComputerCraft from Minecraft 1.7.10 to Minecraft 1.8 was a huge task, requiring approximately 200 manhours of work, fixing 1,736 compile errors, and completely rewriting large portions of the code. This time investment would not have been possible without the financial support of two generous sponsors:

  • Minecraft U
    Minecraft U teaches problem solving and programming techniques in a safe, encouraging ecosystem centered around Minecraft.
     
  • Deep Space
    Deep Space has been turning kids into coders with ComputerCraft for years. They’re taking their teaching beyond the classroom by building online education for people that love Minecraft, programming, Arduino, robotics, IoT and more.

If you’re at all interested in programming education, check out their websites. They’re both doing great work using ComputerCraft. If you have a vested interest in ComputerCraft and you’re interested in sponsoring future versions of the mod, get in touch.

Thanks also to everybody who helped with beta testing this update. Thanks to some thorough testing and quality bug reports, we’ve fixed over 65 issues in this update.

Finally, thanks to everyone who has kept on experimenting and building things using ComputerCraft over the last 4 years. I’m incredibly proud of the community creations that ComputerCraft has inspired. In the new year, I’ll be formally announcing a new project I’ve been working on that should expand our community even further, so watch this space.

Happy Holidays!

ComputerCraft 1.75

Hey all, it’s time for another ComputerCraft update! I’m currently working on an update of the mod for Minecraft 1.8, but before I do: here’s one final update for Minecraft 1.7.10. It fixes a couple of small but annoying bugs discovered during the 1.8 port.

Downloads:

ComputerCraft 1.75 requires Minecraft version 1.7.10 with an up to date version of Minecraft Forge installed. Once you have Forge, drop the jar file into your /mods/ directory, and launch Minecraft.

Changelog:

  • Fixed monitors sometimes rendering without part of their text.
  • Fixed a regression in the “bit” API.

See you in 1.8!

Introducing: ComputerCraftEdu

Ever since I released the first version of ComputerCraft back in 2011, I’ve always
been amazed and impressed by the number of people who’ve come up to me to tell me they’ve used ComputerCraft to teach themselves programming. Even more impressive is the number of school teachers and educators who’ve taken it upon themselves to use the mod to teach programming to others. Today, I’m announcing the release of a new project that takes the educational potential of ComputerCraft to a whole new level.

ComputerCraftEdu is a project I’ve been working on for over two years with TeacherGaming, the people who made MinecraftEdu and are responsible for putting Minecraft into thousands of schools around the world. In the same vein as MinecraftEdu, ComputerCraftEdu is a streamlined version of ComputerCraft designed for use in learning and education, to teach the next generation of programmers how to code. The two main features of the mod are “Beginner’s Turtles” and the “Turtle Remote”, which provide a powerful new visual way to program ComputerCraft Turtles and learn the fundamentals of programming.

ComputerCraftEdu is especially designed for schools using MinecraftEdu, but it’s available to everyone with a PC version of Minecraft. Visit www.computercraftedu.com to download the mod, and check out the provided wiki and tutorial videos to learn more about how the mod plays.

We hope this project will introduce even more players to the power and joy of programming, and help to inspire the next generation of coders.

ComputerCraft 1.74

Hey everybody! It’s time for another ComputerCraft update. This one adds a few features people have been asking for for a while, including ubiquitous tab completion, taking the guesswork out of programming!

Downloads:

ComputerCraft 1.74 requires Minecraft version 1.7.10 with an up to date version of Minecraft Forge installed. Once you have Forge, drop the files into your /mods/ directory, and launch Minecraft.

Changelog:

  • Added tab completion to “edit”, “lua” and the shell.
  • Added textutils.complete(), fs.complete(), shell.complete(), shell.setCompletionFunction() and help.complete().
  • Added tab completion options to read().
  • Added “key_up” and “mouse_up” events.
  • Non-advanced terminals now accept both grey colours.
  • Added term.getTextColour(), term.getBackgroundColour() and term.blit().
  • Improved the performance of text rendering on Advanced Computers.
  • Added a “Run” button to the edit program on Advanced Computers.
  • Turtles can now push players and entities (configurable).
  • Turtles now respect server spawn protection (configurable).
  • Added a turtle permissions API for mod authors.
  • Implemented a subset of the Lua 5.2 API so programs can be written against it now, ahead of a future Lua version upgrade.
  • Added a config option to disable parts of the Lua 5.1 API which will be removed when a future Lua version upgrade happens.
  • Command Computers can no longer be broken by survival players.
  • Fixed the “pick block” key not working on ComputerCraft items in creative mode.
  • Fixed the “edit” program being hard to use on certain European keyboards.
  • Added “_CC_VERSION” and “_MC_VERSION” constants.

Thanks again to everyone who helped beta test this update. If you’d like to help us test future versions, visit the ComputerCraft Beta Testing forums, where we’re currently testing the upcoming ComputerCraftEdu. More on that soon!

ComputerCraft 1.71 1.72 1.73

Hey all, just a quick update to add one small but vital feature I missed from ComputerCraft 1.7 (and then two more to fix server crashes – sorry!). Details below:

Downloads:

ComputerCraft 1.73 requires Minecraft version 1.7.10 with an up to date version of Minecraft Forge installed. Once you have Forge, drop the files into your /mods/ directory, and launch Minecraft.

Changelog:

  • The “exec” program, commands.exec() and all related Command Computer functions now return the console output of the command.
  • Fixed two multiplayer-only crash bugs when placing certain blocks.

Happy hacking!

ComputerCraft 1.7

One of the features of ComputerCraft I’m most proud of is one design principle I’ve consistently applied: realistic constraints. Turtles are powerful, but restricted: they can only dig things in front of them, and they must have resources to build. Some times though, you just want to get creative. In ComputerCraft 1.7, I’ve added a new feature I’ve wanted for a long time: the Command Computer.

A Command Computer with it's primitive cousin

Inspired by the incredible things vanilla players do with Command Blocks, the Command Computer is a creative mode computer that has the ability to execute arbitrary minecraft commands. It can set blocks, create items and entities, interact with players and more, all from Lua scripts. It’s perfect for adventure maps, mini-games, and ambitious algorithmic building projects. Check out this video by thatParadox for an idea of how to use them. Onto the downloads:

Downloads:

ComputerCraft 1.7 requires Minecraft version 1.7.10 with an up to date version of Minecraft Forge installed. Once you have Forge, drop the files into your /mods/ directory, and launch Minecraft.

Changelog:

  • Added Command Computers
  • Added new API: commands
  • Added new programs: commands, exec
  • Added textutils.serializeJSON()
  • Added ILuaContext.executeMainThreadTask() for peripheral developers
  • Disk Drives and Printers can now be renamed with Anvils
  • Fixed problems with HD texture packs
  • Fixed various bug, crashes and exploits
  • Documented all the new features in the in-game help system

I’m really excited to see what people create with this update, be sure to post anything cool onto the ComputerCraft forums. Happy hacking!

ComputerCraft: Hosted by CreeperHost

If you visit this website a lot, you’ve probably noticed that it has a habit of going offline, sometimes for several days at a time, sometimes several times a month. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that the cause of this downtime is abuse: DDoS attacks organised by immature fans of other Minecraft mods, and people who’ve been banned from the forums. It’s disgusting behaviour, but it’s unfortunately one of the things you have to deal with if you run a website with any significant userbase today.

This post is not to complain, however, but to announce a solution: I’ve moved the site from my previous web host to a new server graciously provided to me by CreeperHost, the Minecraft server hosting company who you may know as the people who provide the bandwidth for the Feed the Beast launcher. With any luck, this server should be more resilient to attacks than the previous host. Time will tell.

At any rate, I owe big thanks to CreeperHost for helping me out with this situation. If you’re in the market for Minecraft server hosting, check them out! And thanks to everyone else for your patience during these troubled times.