# Program Design Language

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'''Program Design Language''' (or '''PDL''', for short) is a method for designing and documenting methods and procedures in software. It is related to [pseudocode](/source/pseudocode), but unlike pseudocode, it is written in plain language without any terms that could suggest the use of any programming language or library.

PDL was originally developed by the company Caine, Farber & Gordon<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Caine |first1=Stephen H. |last2=Gordon |first2=E. Kent |chapter=PDL: A tool for software design |date=1975-05-19 |title=Proceedings of the May 19-22, 1975, national computer conference and exposition on - AFIPS '75 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=271–276 |doi=10.1145/1499949.1499995 |isbn=978-1-4503-7919-9|doi-access=free }}</ref> and has been modified substantially since they published their initial paper on it in 1975. It has been described in some detail by [Steve McConnell](/source/Steve_McConnell) in his book ''[Code Complete](/source/Code_Complete)''.

==See also==
*[Pseudocode](/source/Pseudocode)
*[FLOW CHART](/source/FLOW_CHART)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.gamedev.net/articles/programming/general-and-gameplay-programming/using-pdl-for-code-design-and-documentation-r1384 Using PDL for Code Design and Documentation]
*[http://www.cfg.com/pdl81/index.html PDL/81 Home Page] by Caine, Farber & Gordon, Inc.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190213011655/http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/dts/pm/Papers/nasa-c-style.pdf C STYLE GUIDE] from Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Category:Algorithm description languages
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