Cool. As a matter of fact, about a week ago I tried to do something similar by trying to integrate Python with Minecraft. I actually did expose the full Bukkit API to Python (easy enough to do), so all its commands are available.
I didn't really like the "type your code in Minecraft chat"-approach many similar projects were/are taking (i.e. "/js myCodeHere()" in chat) and wanted a proper interpreter window. To integrate the Java-based Bukkit API with Python, I used Jython. The result is something similar as shown here: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Pi_Edition
I've yet to put up a blog post or something, but I've thrown together a quick video of me playing with it (it's a bit slow so feel free to forward) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI3PfgCSI7Y
I think something like this could really help in getting kids excited about programming. Back in the day, I started learning programming with LOGO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language) , a quirky adaptation of LISP, but where you could immediately see your results drawn on screen. It's cool to see Minecraft as some sort of modern "canvas" for programming.
I have been using a python-bukkit plugin layer for quite some time for a lot of small administrative plugin tasks on my private server. You should check out his project, it's on github.
I wrote a bot a year or so ago which implemented a very basic subset of Turtle / LOGO using python for minecraft classic and a repl. When the newer protocol came out, I stopped working on it after the protocol changed but it was a fun exercise.
I didn't really like the "type your code in Minecraft chat"-approach many similar projects were/are taking (i.e. "/js myCodeHere()" in chat) and wanted a proper interpreter window. To integrate the Java-based Bukkit API with Python, I used Jython. The result is something similar as shown here: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Pi_Edition
I've yet to put up a blog post or something, but I've thrown together a quick video of me playing with it (it's a bit slow so feel free to forward) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI3PfgCSI7Y
I think something like this could really help in getting kids excited about programming. Back in the day, I started learning programming with LOGO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language) , a quirky adaptation of LISP, but where you could immediately see your results drawn on screen. It's cool to see Minecraft as some sort of modern "canvas" for programming.