I've been reading code complete, not far in yet but one of the things it talks about is PDL - a higher level design language, which you write each routine in before coding in the language of choice.
I wondered if anyone actually did this in real life? Another thing it says is to leave each line of PDL in the code as comments. Surely that is overly verbose commenting?
I've never used PDL in real life, apart from perhaps something similar called ISWIM for a university class but I've never used it when writing my own code.
Surely if you write every routine/method/whatever in pseudo code first you will end up wasting a lot of time?
Surely if you write every routine/method/whatever in pseudo code first you will end up wasting a lot of time?
Not at all - planning out what you're going to do beforehand can save time. It forces you to think things through and refactor at the easiest stage (i.e. before you've really done anything).
You don't have to fully write each routine - just the key steps, to give you enough of a mental map of what each part will do, and whether you've planned for everything you need.
I've never heard about PDL (Program Design Language?) specifically though, and - after looking at it - it does seem to be wordy, ugly and too much effort, and I wouldn't recommend using it - stick to concise but readable pseudo-code.