Goals:

• keep writing scripts for your program.
• Write a pseudocode of your program.

So by now you have the core function of your project figured out.
You may also have some pseudocode or code to string together the aspects of your project.

Pseudocode what is it?

Pseudocode is an informal way to plan out the structure and flow of your program.

• Don’t worry about syntax of a partiular language.
• Do think about variables and control structure.
• Pseudocode can be translated across many languages easily.

Basically you want to write out what you want your computer code to do in english before you actually code it.
This is a great way to organize what your program will do, then all you have to figure out is the code to implement your vision. Once you figure out your code the pseudocode will be the bulk of the comments within the script.

Pseudocode example:

# write a script that prints a number and its square over a range of values

# set lower and upper range values
# set squaresum to 0

# loop over the range and for each value print
  # currentvalue and the currentvalue^2
  # add currentvalue^2 to squaresum
# print "the sum of it all is" squaresum

Then you can translate this comments into your favorite command language (e.g R). Let’s elaborate the Pseudocode above in R.

# write a script that prints a number and its square over a range of values  

# set lower and upper range values  
lower = 1; upper = 5  

# set squaresum to 0  
squaresum = 0  

# loop over the range and for each value print  
  # currentvalue and the currentvalue^2  
  # add currentvalue^2 to squaresum  
for (ii in lower:upper){  
  cat(ii, ii^2, "\n")  
  squaresum <- squaresum +  ii^2  
}  

# print "the sum of it all is" squaresum
cat("the sum of it all is", squaresum)  

There is no right or wrong way to write pseudocode, and here is a tutorial on how to write pseudocode:

Today in discussion, you want to finish writing your pseudocode. You should also figure out who in your group is responsible for writing the code that will replace each part of the pseudo code.

There is a folder on our class GitHub here that contains useful scripts that you can incorporate into your project.

There is also a folder on our class GitHub here that includes example taxonomy data for the fishbase like projects.

Just as a final friendly reminder: Your projects should be able to run on Hoffman2.

Homework

Besides having a pseudocode of your program, you must submit to this repository one chunk (e.g small script) of your program that takes an input do something with it and gives an output. This is due next discussion section. Important: You must include some input, so Daniel can run your script.