The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
In the specification of algorithms, as well as in consideration of the design and verification of completed programs, it is common practice to use a notational technique called pseudocode. Pseudocode is simply a convention for specifying a procedure or algorithm fragment in a semi-rigorous way that can be followed by programmers. Well-written pseudocode can often be translated line-by-line into program code.
As with program code itself, pseudocode should be well commented so that it can be easily understood. If the pseudocode conventions (the notation used, which is not rigorous and can vary by author's choice and application domain) are somewhat relaxed, then additional comments may not have to be extensive since a fair amount of English-like comments and phrases can be built into the pseudocode fragment itself.
As an example of a pseudocode specification, consider the following. A person is entitled to vote if she is 18 years of age or older, if she is registered to vote in the relevant jurisdiction, and if she has not lost her right to vote on account of a felony conviction. This voter-validation protocol may be specified in the following format, which could be easily converted to a program for asking questions of a prospective voter to determine eligibility. Comments are included after the double slash marks (//).