I need to translate some python and java routines into pseudo code for my master thesis but have trouble coming up with a syntax/style that is:
- consistent
- easy to understand
- not too verbose
- not too close to natural language
- not too close to some concrete programming language.
How do you write pseudo code? Are there any standard recommendations?
Answer
I recommend looking at the "Introduction to Algorithms" book (by Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest). I've always found its pseudo-code description of algorithms very clear and consistent.
An example:
DIJKSTRA(G, w, s)
1 INITIALIZE-SINGLE-SOURCE(G, s)
2 S ← Ø
3 Q ← V[G]
4 while Q ≠ Ø
5 do u ← EXTRACT-MIN(Q)
6 S ← S ∪{u}
7 for each vertex v ∈ Adj[u]
8 do RELAX(u, v, w)