Study the Minetest plugin for Raspberry PI Minecraft API

[acs]

After the research at #50 the decision is to invest in the support of the Python API in Minetest.

https://github.com/arpruss/raspberryjammod-minetest

After our research at #45 the plugin is usable as it is right now. The next steps:

• Describe the API covered
• Learn howto create plugins for minetest using Lua
  • Learn Lua in the process (Refs here: https://www.computercraft.info/download/)
• Test the full API and find the gaps not covered from the origin Raspberry PI API
• Test it with Minetest 5.2
• Meet the community

I have already fork the repository at: https://github.com/acs/raspberryjammod-minetest/blob/master/README.md

The original developer seems to have lost motivation about the plugin, but he is answering issues: arpruss/raspberryjammod#49

[acs]

The API covered is pretty well readable at: https://github.com/arpruss/raspberryjammod-minetest/blob/master/raspberryjammod/init.lua

It has also some useful commands on chat to reposition the player for example.

The reference book for modding Minetest: https://rubenwardy.com/minetest_modding_book/en/index.html

[acs]

It seems that it has a WebSocket feature but I don't know the use case for it yet.

Lua for me is similar to Python. Untyped, using indentation to mark blocks ... but probably it is best at some points as it is more modern and it can learn for python issues for example.

Lua is also used in Minecraft for mods like: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/computercraft and the book https://nostarch.com/codingwithminecraft is about it.

[acs]

IntelliJ has support for Lua: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/5055-lua

[acs]

15 min guide to learn Lua: http://tylerneylon.com/a/learn-lua/

It can be tests from command line interpreter:

[~]$ lua
Lua 5.3.5  Copyright (C) 1994-2018 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
> 

[acs]

Lua is focused in embedded devices so it is pretty relevant in IoT field.There are samples like: http://thinglabs.io/workshop/esp8266/hello-lua-iot/

But it is not a recommend language to learn nowadays:

https://www.codementor.io/blog/worst-languages-to-learn-3phycr98zk
http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html

There are frameworks using Lua like: Torch for machine learning and OpenResty for the web

[acs]

First step in the community:

https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?p=372462#p372462

[acs]

Ok, all done! Maybe the first real action for this plugin is to extend the API to covers the same API than the one now in MC (after the update of mcpi). So closing this ticket also until more effort is needed.