Writing algorithms in latex

There're a number of ways in which algorithms can be written in a latex article.

Option 1
One way is to use the \verb command. That would give a type written look to the algorithm. May be OK to use that for small code snippets. But it is very inflexible. In total, it's not advised to use this method.

Option 2
Use listings package. It can be got from here. Please check. It usually comes prepackaged in latex installations. So, it may already be there on your machine. listings is very versatile, giving you the facility to include code snippets of many languages (C, C++, Pascal, pseudocode, HTML...). You can include source-code directly from an external file. You can also inline that. And you could add it right as a part of your regular text.

However, listings appears more appropriate only for inserting code snippets, and not algorithms. Well, I don't think there's any inherent limitation, since it seems to be a very stable package. But, option 3 seems more appropriate for algorithms.

Option 3
To write proper algorithms, one should use one or more of the above. My colleagues seem to prefer a combination of algorithm and algorithmic. Both come bundled in the same package that can be downloaded from here.

A usual way is to nest algorithmic inside algorithm. The latex code will look somewhat like:

\begin{algorithm}
\begin{algorithmic}
...
your algorithm
...
\end{algorithmic}
\end{algorithm}

However, this seems to have a drawback from what I observed. algorithmic doesn't seem to have a way of having more than one procedure in a single algorithm. And also of invoking other procedures.

That problem gets mitigated if we replace algorithmic with algo. It has got function calls, and multiple procedures. I prefer algorithm, algo combination the best.

Please note that when you are using algo, you must exclude algorithmic. Using both packages together, as in:

\usepackage{algorithm}
\usepackage{algorithmic}
\usepackage{algo}

seems to have some problems. Notably, if you are using algo to write your algorithm, the indentations will disappear if the algorithmic package is used. Just comment out that above line:

%\usepackage{algorithmic}

However, using algo.sty has a severe problem. There seem to be many versions of it available on the web which unfortunately seem to have originated from completely different sources, and therefore are incompatible with each other. In fact, I have lost track of the source and accompanying documentation of the version I am currently using. There's one version available here. I am planning to shift to that next time on.