I use pseudo-code fairly often in big projects, especially when I'm facing a very hairy solution. When I run up against a sticky problem, I go for a walk or read or do something else until a solution presents itself.

Then I have to rush back and write down (or type) enough to get the shape of the answer out of my head and somewhere I can refer to it later.

It's a little like literate programming, perhaps, where the programmer mixes his design ideas with actual code. I'm not as strict as that (running a tangler preprocessor seems like a waste of my valuable time), but I do leave in comments where I need to put flesh on bare bones. When things work, then I take most of them out.

Pseudo-code definitely has a place in my style... comments are for communication -- with myself, with other programmers. I'll use them whenever I can.


In reply to Pseudo-Code and Utility by chromatic
in thread Learning Programming by NodeReaper

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