ACO 101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Search Algorithm, Boolean Data Type, Pseudocode
Document Summary
Natural languages like english, spanish, or french which are rich in interpretation and meaning are not ideal for this purpose. We need a more precise notation to present algorithms that is not subject to differing interpretations. At the other extreme formal programming languages (such as c, c++, java, perl, ada, python, etc. ) are very inflexible in their syntax, and require much attention to detail. These details may be irrelevant in the initial design phases of an algorithm. Instead we use an informal and flexible language called pseudo-code which uses english language constructs and conventions modeled to look like commands available in most computer languages. Pseudo-code is a language in which all necessary operations can be expressed, but which is independent of any computer language, or of any computer for that matter. Sequential operations are of three basic kinds: computation, input, and output. The instruction for performing a calculation and storing the result is written as variable expression.
