Blockly Delights

Computer Science STEM Education

Stephen O'Connor

May 8th, 2018

How to get kids to care?

• They don't
• Meh
•  

Minecraft

https://minecraft.net/

And Blockly

https://developers.google.com/blockly/

Demo

Challenges

• New to Node.js
  • Asynchronous by default is awesome
  • Class structures are... different.
     
• Blockly is built to generate code.
  • Awesome for Scratch
  • Don't want client code running on server
     
  • Solution: Make blockly generate JSON

{
  "type": "speak",
  "val": {
    "type": "const",
    "val": "Hello"
  }
}

JSON Example

Things to do:

• Refactor code
  • A lot of copy/paste.
  • ES6 style classes will simplify code
• More command blocks!
  • Comparisons
  • Actual Minecraft block interaction
    • (build/inspect/destroy)
• Multiple bots
  • Should support it already
  • Need to improve Bot Management
• Server Management
  • DOCKER!

The End

github.com/stevarino/blockly_delights