Write a program in Python, VB, C#, and Java, SIMULTANEOUSLY
When 23 Sept 2026
Start16:15
End17:00
Organised by Becci Peters
Community Type
Thematic Community
Event Type
Online
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Elan is a free online IDE that supports Python, VB, C#, and Java, and supports all three of the major programming paradigms: procedural, object-oriented, and functional. One of the many highly original features is the optional 'quad view' where you can write/edit code in one language and see it translated, as you write it, into three other languages. As well as rewarding pupils with a greater sense of achievement, the advantage of using quad view is that as each new type of instruction is introduced (variable, while loop, function etc), pupils learn the concept not as a specific syntax, but as a general concept that works in all the languages - the only difference being the boilerplate syntax. And when using Elan you never write this boilerplate syntax anyway - you create each instruction with a single keystroke and then just fill in the 'fields' which specify exactly what you want the instruction to do. Elan thus offers huge potential to improve the way we teach programming, without requiring you to change from your preferred programming language.
Elan does impose certain constraints on the code you can write, but most of these constraints are designed specifically to encourage better programming - preventing many of the bad habits that, today, most pupils learn at the start of their programming journey - and, if they choose to progress further, have to then unlearn. Defining global variables, is just one of many examples of this.
In this session, Richard Pawson, architect of Elan and well-known within the CAS community for his many contributions, will demonstrate Elan in action, and show specific ways in which using Elan leads to better programming, whille offering fewer opportunities to make the trivial errors that today consume such a high proportion of programming lessons. The presentation will be followed, as usual, by an opportunity for Q&A. Teachers can expect to leave the session with sufficient information to experiment with Elan for themselves, and with pupils.
For further information
Becci Peters