Pseudocode is a plain language description of the steps in an algorithm or another system, often using structural conventions of a normal programming language, but intended for human reading rather than machine. It is a methodology that allows the programmer to represent the implementation of an algorithm, and it is often used to represent algorithms as they can be interpreted by programmers no matter what their programming background or knowledge is. Pseudocode is an informal way of programming description that does not require any strict programming language syntax or underlying technology considerations, and it is used for creating an outline or a rough draft of a program.
Pseudocode is commonly used in textbooks and scientific publications to document algorithms and in planning of software and other algorithms. It is also used to ensure that programmers understand a software projects requirements, and it summarizes a program’s flow, but excludes underlying details. Pseudocode improves the readability of any approach, acts as a bridge between the program and the algorithm or flowchart, and works as a rough documentation, so the program of one developer can be understood easily when a pseudo code is written out.
Although pseudocode is a syntax-free description of an algorithm, it must provide a full description of the algorithm’s logic so that moving from pseudocode to implementation is merely a task of translating each line into code using the syntax of any given programming language. The primary prerequisite for pseudocode is that its comprehensible to the people who need to understand it, no matter what the codes structure or syntax is.
