Although Mojang did hire the core Bukkit team, the mod API they are working on is planned to be a new API designed from the ground up, rather than Bukkit [1]. Bukkit was designed within constraints appropriate at the time for the environment it arose in (for example, it is layered as: the Bukkit API itself, on top of the CraftBukkit server implementation, which is itself a mod on the "vanilla" Minecraft server jar from Mojang -- abstractions to help insulate Bukkit plugins from the volatile nature of Minecraft internals). They did design a fairly good API, the most successful in the Minecraft modding community no doubt, but having a new official API built into the game has a number of advantages and is their ultimate goal. Although there may be a Bukkit compatibility layer or a documentation on porting from Bukkit to the official mod API.
It isn't clear what will happen to Bukkit after the official API is released. The founder of Bukkit has said they intend to phase it out. But Bukkit is an open source project, LGPL, with many active contributors and a thriving community of plugin developers. Will be interesting to see what happens, although IMHO a proper, well-designed official Minecraft API can only be for the better.
It isn't clear what will happen to Bukkit after the official API is released. The founder of Bukkit has said they intend to phase it out. But Bukkit is an open source project, LGPL, with many active contributors and a thriving community of plugin developers. Will be interesting to see what happens, although IMHO a proper, well-designed official Minecraft API can only be for the better.
[1] Source: Minecon 2012 API panel