First of all, thank you for PocketMine, it is a nice piece of software! I had some fun installing it at home and teaching my child a little about servers as we played creative together on our server each on his own tablet. Might open it to his friends to connect in order to safely introduce them to MUG. I have a question more out of curiosity. I've noticed comments on the latest 0.8.1 compatible release that carts weren't implemented for the same reason as mobs. My question is how far are you from implementing mobs, and, if it is far what is the key challenges you are facing to implement them. I have a technical background, programmed complex corporate systems in Java and other languages, feel free to talk tech, patterns, etc. Add me here. Thanks & keep up the good work!
I think @shoghicp implemented mobs for 9.0 and minecarts and bow physics. As there still developing the latest version of PM its still buggy but its mainly for devs to update plugins so that when 9.0 releases the plugins will be ready and up to date to have servers working with there plugins. If you want you can try asking shoghi some questions while he streams on Twitch. If you ask him a question be patient cause he is developing the latest version of pm on his stream. Also I'm no expert on PM Its just what I have heard and asked him.
Also you can teach your child about plugins. As plugins are a big part of PM it can make your gameplay a lot of fun! There are many plugins you can see on the forums some fun some helpful.
Yeah as @TheRealJ2KK2J said, @shoghicp is working on the next PocketMine update (1.4) for the next Minecraft: Pocket Edition update (0.9.0) scheduled to be released within the month. He has been working tirelessly for months to completely recode PocketMine, making it easier to add new features for future MCPE updates, allowing plugin developers to create more complex and powerful plugins, enable servers to run faster and smoother, and finally adding things such as mobs, minecarts, snowballs, arrows, etc. He's still working on everything, and everything is still a bit buggy because of testing. If you want to see the PocketMine code for yourself and even contribute to it, you can see that all from the PocketMine GitHub. Just to clarify, though, the code found on the GitHub is for PocketMine 1.4. All plugins on the repository are not compatible with PM 1.4, unless they are labelled "NEW API". Also, it only works for the MCPE 0.9.0 beta test versions released on select Android devices. You can find a 1.4 installer in this post, download the latest 1.4 phar files from the PocketMine Jenkins server found here, and find some more information on the 0.9.0 Android beta tests here. Also, if you wish to talk to @shoghicp, the lead developer of PocketMine, or other PocketMine developers, head on over to our IRC chat. Just be sure not to bug shoghicp too much, because he may either be sleeping or working on PocketMine, or doing school work or something. So just be patient and he'll answer you. If you need any more information, don't be afraid to ask! I'm really glad you're teaching your kids about this stuff. I first got interested in programming by running a private server for the PC version of Minecraft, and have slowly wanted to learn more and more, ended up finding this community, and have learned so much about not only programming, but other life skills as well, and I hope your kids can find some of that similar excitement!