A computer program

Abstract

One of the major tasks of the organic chemist, planning synthetic routes to organic molecules, can be made considerably easier with the help of a computer. Organic synthesis is a complex problem. On the one hand, chemists must remember large numbers of organic reactions and must know which of these reactions work for which kinds of molecules. On the other hand, they also must be able to extrapolate from previous knowledge and to devise new methods and new applications of existing methods to design novel syntheses. Over the past 15 years or so, computer programs have been developed that can help them with both of these aspects of synthetic planning. The first such program, OCSS (Organic Chemical Simulation of Synthesis), was written at Harvard University in 1967 by a group under the direction of E. J. Corey. OCSS was revolutionary in its approach to input and output. Corey's idea was to use interactive computer graphics ...