If you don't explain the logic behind the special characters, of course it's easier to learn what the code is about from the notation which has less special characters and less semantic behind the special characters, like their better faring language:
action z(integer a, integer b,
integer c) returns number
number d = 0.0
number e = 0.0
integer i = a
repeat b - a times
if i mod c = 0 then
I'd say the students were talented if they managed to make reasonable results in any language, from my perspective, their "better" language is still way too hard for absolute beginners.
I blame the title for turning this into Perl sucks vs. no it doesn't discussion. Not going into the problems with their study (N=18, poor Perl samples,...), all they prove is that a novice will much better understand pseudo code designed to be easy to understand than a real programming language.
I'm a Perl hacker and I would be the last to claim that it has an easy to understand syntax. Perl is full of shortcuts and magic that is hard for beginners, but it makes my life as a programmer much more easier. If they compare their pseudo language with Perl, Ruby, and Python, Perl would be at the bottom of the list.
If you don't explain the logic behind the special characters, of course it's easier to learn what the code is about from the notation which has less special characters and less semantic behind the special characters, like their better faring language:
I'd say the students were talented if they managed to make reasonable results in any language, from my perspective, their "better" language is still way too hard for absolute beginners.