Structured English uses plain English words to describe each step in a computer program, making it understandable to non-programmers. It breaks down tasks into logical steps using commands like IF-THEN-ELSE and CASE. This style of programming has been the basis for many programming languages, including SQL.
Structured English makes computer codes understandable to non-programmers by using English words to describe each step in the process of running a program. The structures of a computer program are designed to tell the computer what to do in a logical, step-by-step manner. Non-programmers, however, are unable to read the actual symbols and indications in code, so people have created programming languages that use plain English words to express what happens while the actual code is running. This structured English, often referred to as pseudo-code, doesn’t actually program the computer, but could be described as a flowchart listing each step performed as the computer follows the actual program.
By breaking down a task into a logical sequence of individual steps, structured English helps you follow the underlying organization of a computer program. Each step of the process is described on one line, using clear capitalized English words, usually in the form of commands or imperatives. A simple example of this is the IF-THEN-ELSE process, also known as a conditional process. If one condition is true, a particular action occurs, but if another condition is true, a different action occurs. The entire IF-THEN-ELSE process is terminated with an ENDIF, so this decision program is not confused with the next sequence of steps.
Many other commands, such as START, REPEAT, WRITE and DO are used to describe individual steps in a computer program. These commands are often embedded within other processes, creating different levels of actions within a single activity. A programmer might start a process and make two or three IF-THEN decisions, one after the other, before using ENDIF to end that process. A conditional process using IF-THEN or CASE is one of the most powerful constructions in a structured English program. It introduces the ability for the computer to make many very different decisions, depending on the existence of varying conditions.
The IF-THEN-ELSE conditional construct, or the CASE command that introduces a set of actions that should occur for several potential cases, introduces the concept of a decision tree into the program. Each possible starting condition or case would be a single branch on the tree, with each branch leading to further branches carrying particular sets of IF-THEN result types. A change in one of these initial conditions could lead to completely different end products on different branches of the tree. In structured English, these subordinate IF-THEN or CASE branches can be distinguished by being indented under commands for the larger process of which they are a part. This style of writing the program provides great accuracy while allowing the reader to see exactly where every little decision occurs within the larger context.
The idea of structured English has been the basis of many types of computer programming languages. One of the first structured programming languages was SQL (Structured Query Language), created at the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in the early 1970s. It has been followed over the years by many other languages that seek to make computer programming clearer to ordinary readers. The underlying code that runs your computer is still written in symbols that most people can’t read. Structured English programming languages, however, allow these people to design programs that are then internally translated into that code, so that their computers do the tasks required of them.
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