part 1 - the information

According to Code Complete (Steve McConnell, Microsoft Press, 1993), program design language (PDL) was originally described in a paper published by Caine and Gordon in 1975.

Guidelines for effective use of PDL include:

• Use English^*-like statements that precisely describe specific operations
  ^*or other spoken language
• Avoid synatic elements from the target programming language. Thinking in programming language constructs eliminates the main benefit of design at a higher level.
• Write at the level of intent. Describe the meaning of the approach, rather than how the approach will be implemented in the particular programming language.
• Write PDL at a low enough level that generating code from it will be nearly automatic.

Benefits from using PDL:

• Reviews are easier - no need to examine source code.
• PDL supports iterative refinement - successive refinement in small steps allows you to check design as you get more detailed.
• Changes are easier.
• Commenting is done for you - turn the PDL into comments.
• PDL is an easy-to-maintain form of design documentation.

part 2 - the query

This PDL stuff sounds pretty good to me - maybe it's just new to me because I don't have any formal programming training. My background is in science, and I picked up any "programming knowledge" I might possess as the situations presented themselves.

I'm wondering, is PDL something that people actually use?

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