Using pseudocode to develop algorithms

I am used to jumping right into programming and just come up with algorithmical solutions on the go but lately I’ve been playing a bit with pseudocode. The idea is simple. Before you start programming, you write the algorithm down in a simple informal language – pseudocode.

The pseudocode usually uses some conventions from normal programming languages (like if/else, while, for and other statements) but things not important for humans are omitted – the aim is to describe the algorithm in a way clear to humans not machines. Here’s an example of my pseudocode:

get the latest articles

for all articles
    if article is published
        write title
        write content
        write number of comments
    endif
endfor

As you can see there are no rules. No variables declarations and no system-specific code. Personally, I like to use if/endif, for/endfor to make the code more readable.

Why use it? It can save lots of time as translating algorithms to a specific language is much easier when you already have all business logic described. There’s also a chance you will find and fix potential issues before the real programming.