Minecraft Modding with Forge

Appendix D. Devoxx4Kids

By Stephan Janssen

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Alan Kay

Minecraft modding is actually one of the Devoxx4Kids (D4K) workshops we teach around the world, kickstarted by Arun Gupta’s son. Arun asked me to do a write-up on D4K to provide readers with additional information about this initiative and its background.

In addition to providing an overview of D4K overall, this appendix discusses some of the other exciting D4K workshops we teach and even offer freely on our website.

In “D4K Best Practices”, I share some practical details that should help if you decide to start your own local D4K chapter.

How Did D4K Start?

In 2001, after my consultancy company JCS Int. got acquired, I was evaluating what I would do next. At that time, I was already running the Belgian Java User Group (BeJUG) for several years. The opportunity and challenge of organizing a European JavaOne-like conference was something I thought would be exciting to do. From that idea, JavaPolis was born. Fast-forward 13 years (with a rebrand to Devoxx in 2008) and the event has grown into the biggest Java community conference around the world with close to 6,000 developers annually attending Devoxx Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom.

In July 2011, my son Arthur (11 years at that time) surprised me with the following question: “Dad, I want to learn how to program!” (Figure D-1). If you’re a developer, you can imagine the impact this had on me: alarm bells and fireworks ...