Input: function f, negative and positive arguments x- and x+, xtol, ftol, itmax

Begin loop

  Set x to the average of x- and x+
  
  set old = | x+ - x- |

  If f(x) is negative, replace x- by x
  else replace x+ by x
  
  set new = | x+ - x- |
  set alpha = new / old 
  possibly print alpha

  if new is less than xtol and |f| is less than ftol, success
  else if it > itmax, failure
  else repeat

End loop
  
Output: updated values of x- and x+ and it