[bigshell]

Hi. I'm 16 and got into programming in a similar way but I can't in good conscience say that making Minecraft mods is a good way of learning programming. It's a pain in the ass. There's practically no documentation and you usually find yourself scrolling through deobfuscated game code trying to make sense of the thing and figure how the game works. I don't think it's a good way of learning. Don't get me wrong, getting started programming by making things that you want to make is an excellent way to make it enjoyable rather than a chore but trying to write Minecraft mods and figure out what to do is frustrating and grueling.

[imtringued]

I got into programming with 12 with very little actual motivation to program anything. I read a book, did the exercises and understood pretty much everything on first try. It took me around a month to get through the book. After that I never used my programming skills until I was 16 and wanted to make Minecraft mods.

Joining IRC a modding channel and talking to Mojang devs every now and then was a pretty interesting experience.

I doubt that this is possible nowadays, especially after Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang.

My memory is failing me but I also saw Drew DeVault on IRC using his former online nick and since I pretty much used IRC exclusively for minecraft related things he must have done something related to minecraft back then as well.

[lemmonii]

I mostly agree but it can be nice to see your code doing something actionable and visual rather than the alternative more traditional approach to learning programming, printing to the terminal.

[disgruntledphd2]

Wow, that sounds like my professional life!