Is pseudo-code alright when asking about performance?

Question

The FAQ states:

Is it actual code from a project rather then pseudo-code or example code?

But oftentimes pseudo-code is a lot more straight forward and easy to evaluate. It also applies to a wider variety of things.

Answer 1

No.

Our focus is to improve working code. By definition, pseudo-code is not working code. The restriction is (partially) to make sure you've put effort in your code before showing it to us. Pseudocode doesn't demonstrate that.

The only thing that we could possibly review about pseudo-code is the algorithm. But that would be Algorithm Review, not Code Review. This is not the site to ask questions about algorithms. Our focus is primarily on improving the style of code rather then algorithms, although we do go there as well.

Pseudocode tends to be very difficult to work with. It is incomplete, ambiguous, inprecise, and just downright annoying. Reviewing it, even for the purpose of thinking about better algorithm is difficult, and its better just to have real code.

If you code is very hard to read in comparison to the pseudocode, then your code needs help, or you should use a better language. But getting help with the actual code is definitely on-topic here.