I created mineflayer[0] - software which implements the minecraft client/server protocol and provides an API so that you can create minecraft bots in javascript. So I followed minecraft development for a while, decompiled and analyzed the code, had to deal with the shitty protocol, and observed the way bugs are introduced and solved.

I've seen his posts about how git is too hard to learn[1] so he's going to stick with svn. I've seen him post that "we've started to bring in bug fixing into the development method"[2], and then the very next release is a "bug fix" release which causes more new bugs than it solves.[3]

I wouldn't hire him for a software development job that required any level of maintenance. He's good at creating original fun concepts but not at making it nice for people to read, modify, or maintain his code.

Also, I would argue that emulating a 16-bit CPU within the constraints of a game environment is easy and straightforward. For one, it's ridiculously simple to do test driven development without any overhead. And second, have you seen all the emulators that have cropped up after the specs were posted? There is already an emulator for almost every popular programming language.

[0]: https://github.com/superjoe30/mineflayer [1]: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2623477410/strategy-meeting-day... [2]: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/4423138657/11-11-11 [3]: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Version_history (might have to view history)

You're a braver man than I for reversing that protocol. :-)

I agree that git is hard to learn and also that emulating a 16-bit CPU is straightforward.

next time include these references in the original post, so people know you're not just some envious grouch :)

Fair enough.

svn vs git? really? svn works fine for me, thus the learning curve for a new vcs doesn't justify the time to invest in learning git.

If you read his blog post, it portrays a lack of skill rather than a rational decision:

"Oh, and I’ve finally committed the Music Blocks to the repository.

(Oh, wait, no, I didn’t.. Doing so broke git, so we’re changing to svn because git is horrible and evil)"