Before writing a program to solve a particular problem, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of the program and a carefully planned approach to solving the problem.
When writing a program, it is equally essential to understand the types of building blocks that are available and to employ proven program construction principles.
As the semester progresses, you will learn about algorithms, which are procedures for solving the problem in terms of
- the actions to be executed, and
- the order in which these actions are to be executed.
You will also learn about pseudocode, which is an artificial and informal language that helps programmers develop algorithms.
- Pseudocode is similar to everyday English; it is convenient and user-friendly, although it is not an actual computer programming language.
- Pseudocode helps the programmer "think out" a program before attempting to write it in a programming language.
- A carefully prepared pseudocode program may be converted easily to a corresponding programming language.
Many inexperienced programmers write programs without ever using program development tools like pseudocode.
- These programmers think that their ultimate goal is to solve the problem on a computer, and that writing pseudocode merely delays production of final outputs.
- Although this may work for simple and familiar problems, it can cause confusion and serious errors on larger, complex projects.