Editing ELAN (programming language)

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{{Short description|Educational programming language}}
{{Infobox programming language
| name = Elan
| logo = 
| paradigms = [[Procedural programming|procedural]], [[Structured programming|structured]]
| designers = [[Cornelis H. A. Koster|C.H.A. Koster]], et al.
| developer = [[Technische Universität Berlin]]
| released = {{Start date and age|1974}}
| latest release version = 
| latest release date = 
| typing = [[Type system#Type checking|static]], [[Strong and weak typing|strong]]
| scope = [[Scope (computer science)|Lexical]]
| programming language = 
| discontinued =
| platform = [[Zilog Z80]], others
| operating system = [[EUMEL]]
| license =
| implementations = 
| dialects = 
| influenced by = [[ALGOL 68]]
| influenced = ?
| website = {{URL|www.cs.ru.nl/elan}}
}}
'''ELAN''' is an [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreted]] [[educational programming language]] for learning and teaching systematic programming.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Borovanský |first1=Peter |last2=Kirchner |first2=Claude |last3=Kirchner |first3=Hélène |last4=Moreau |first4=Pierre-Etienne |last5=Ringeissen |first5=Christophe |date=1998 |title=An Overview of ELAN |journal=Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science |volume=15 |pages=55–70 |doi=10.1016/s1571-0661(05)82552-6 |issn=1571-0661|doi-access=free }}</ref> (Note: In May 2023 design commenced on a new programming language named 'Elan' also designed for teaching and learning programming in schools, but it has no historical connection to the 'ELAN' language described here.)

It was developed in 1974 by [[Cornelis H. A. Koster|C.H.A. Koster]] and a group at [[Technische Universität Berlin]] as an alternative to [[BASIC]] in teaching, and approved for use in secondary schools in [[Germany]] by the "Arbeitskreis Schulsprache". It was in use until the late 1980s in a number of schools in Germany, [[Belgium]], the [[Netherlands]], and [[Hungary]] for informatics teaching in secondary education, and used at the [[Radboud University Nijmegen]] in the Netherlands for teaching systematic programming to students from various disciplines and in teacher courses.

The language design focuses strongly on [[structured programming]], and has a special construction for [[stepwise refinement]], allowing students to focus on [[Top-down and bottom-up design#Computer science|top-down]] design, and [[Top-down and bottom-up design#Computer science|bottom-up]] coding.

The [[microkernel]] [[operating system]] [[Eumel]] began as a [[runtime system]] (environment) for ELAN.

==See also==
*[[ALGOL 68]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.cs.ru.nl/elan/ ELAN implementation built by the Radboud University Nijmegen]
*[ftp://ftp.cs.ru.nl/pub/vb/ ELAN implementation download site]{{dead link|date=May 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
*[http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/l3elan.html Dresden uni on ELAN]
*[http://elan-lang.org The (unconnected) UK-based 'Elan' programming language]

[[Category:Educational programming languages]]
[[Category:Algol programming language family]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1974]]
[[Category:Procedural programming languages]]
[[Category:Programming languages created in 1974]]
[[Category:Programming languages]]


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