Pseudocode Site

OUR FIRST EXAMPLE (continued)

Back to our first program. This simple program would take a number from the keyboard represented by A, and another number represented by B, and then add them together to make yet another number represented by C. It would then print the result to the computer screen. From our previous definition, you can see that the program has three variables, A, B, and C, used to store information.

Now if you typed that program into a computer and tried to compile it, or run it in an interpreter, it wouldn't work. It's not in an actual computer language yet. However, what you do have, is an idea of how your eventual program will work. And sometimes you can even be sure that it will work properly before you program it into the computer.

Note that writing your program on paper in pseudocode to start with, means you can translate it into just about any computer language, at a later date. We say that we are separating the problem from what is called the syntax of a particular programming language.