Algorithm & Pseudocode - are they the same?

I always thought that the word 'algorithm' is the same as 'pseudocode'. Having attended Tim's class yesterday, I noticed the difference. Well actually the course is on JAVA; at the last two sessions of the course, he wanted to instill in our mind the software design is very important - never start coding before you really plan what you are going to do.

Design should be done with pencil and paper. At the initial state, we need to really define the problem or whatever we want to solve. Test it and clarify it with other people; in our case, it would be our supervisor. Once clarified, we can create the algorithm which is the solution to the problem. Since there are many algorithms that are published before, try looking at one to see if it suits our needs. There is no point in reinventing the wheel, isn't it :-)

After successive refinement, pseudocode comes into picture. It is actually the detailed description of a programming in a plain english. If we want to code it in Object Oriented (OO), we should design it as such. When the pseudocode is complete, test it by desk tracing with pen or pencil, following loops and so on. Once satisfied, the pseudocode can be transfered into any programming language that we like and we just have to deal with coding errors. It saves the trouble of rectifying thousands of errors!