An Algorithm - View of an Amateur

There are various views on the definition of an “algorithm”. Going through some most common conception I concluded a definition to clarify what is an algorithm (still open to adjustments).

“Concise and precise, finite number of steps that can perform by a Turing machine effectively”

I used Knuths list of 5 properties that are widely accepted as the requirements of an algorithm which are finiteness, definiteness, input, output, effectiveness. [1]

Minsky[2], Savage and Gurevich[3] assert the thesis that “an algorithm can be considered to be any sequence of operations that can be simulated by a Turing-complete system”.

Thomas H. Cormen simply describe an algorithm in his book Algorithm Unlocked[4] as:

.. computer algorithm is a set of steps to accomplish a task that is described precisely enough that a computer can run it.

Footnotes:

[1]Knuth 1968, 1973

[2]Minsky 1967

[3]Gurevich 2000

[4]Cormen, Thomas H. (2013)