World save/restore (rollback changes done by code before restart)
Is there some easy way how to save/restore world/area state when programming?
Let's say I am trying to write a program to build a house.
If there is some error in the code and the agent creates walls of incorrect length, doesn't turn the correct direction, it is unexpectedly blocked from moving etc, I will end up with some partial structure (and an agent in some random position).
That means that before restart I need to manually destroy all built blocks (or recreate destroyed blocks) and move the agent to start position.
It would be very useful if there was a way to rollback the changes so that the program could be easily restarted after it's fixed (the same way as you can restart the program when you program in "normal" programming languages outside of Minecraft)
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Official comment
Thanks for reaching out to us today! One of the functions I always recommend teachers use and tell their students about is the export function. You can export your worlds to a secondary drive (like a USB or cloud storage). This backs up your work which you can then import into any other supported device. This is also a fantastic way for your students to submit their work to you! I will leave the link for instructions below.
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Hi AdamS
thanks for the response.
I understand export/import mechanism as a backup but is it really meant to be used by students when debugging their program?
It does not sound too user friendly.
Imagine they get the task, they write initial attempt and execute it. They realize something is wrong so they want to fix the bug and re-run the program but the environment has changed (i.e. there's "junk" left by their previous execution of the code). Your suggestion would mean that they need to exit the world after each attempt, import clean backup again, modify the code, etc.
Is there some more user friendly mechanism that can be used without leaving and recreating the world each time?
When I think about the normal dev process (outside of Minecraft), people typically write some version of the code, run it, check the results, if the results are not as expected they fix the code and run the program again (and again, and again) until they achieve the desired result.
It seems that this iterative process is quite painful in Minecraft:EE and it does not really encourage students to experiment as there's a lot of extra overhead work associated with cleaning the results of failed executions or re-importing the world from scratch.
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Ah I understand better now. You're correct, that would not be overly helpful in that specific scenario (although I still highly recommend exporting your world once the daily lesson is done just in case the computer crashes or there is a software issue). We do not have any official way to do reversals like you are wanting here. Its a really great idea that I am going to pass on to the dev team.
I am wondering if, at the very least, the students export their world every day so they have a backup of that day's progress so they do not have to start all over every time. It would at least cut down on the re-creation of worlds. If they end up failing terribly then they can just re-import their previous saved world file and go from there.
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I have had the same issue. I have added a command block with a /fill command to fill the area with air. This will erase anything there. I think you might even be able to write code to do the same thing.
/fill x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 air
x1y1z1 would be the coordinates of where you want to start erasing and x2y2z2 would be the coordinates where you want to stop erasing.
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Chris Fuge thanks for the suggestion.
Unfortunately this also works only for a limited type of scenarios (i.e. if you're coding against empty space).
If the task you need to solve is more complex (e.g. you need to move objects through a maze or build something against the hill side, etc) filling the whole area with air will just destroy the initial setup/environment.
I really hope that some quick method to save/restore world (or area) state will be introduced.
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Jan,
What if you used the /clone command? You could have the initial setup of the challenge somewhere else in the world, and have a command block to re-clone that area after each attempt? I realize that having an easy save/restore feature in Minecraft would be ideal, just trying to help out for now.
Are you familiar with the /clone command? Its similar to /fill in that you select two sets of coordinates for the area you want to clone, but then you enter a third set of coordinates for the new destination of the selected blocks. I can create a quick tutorial video for you if that would help.
Chris
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