Sciencemadness Discussion Board

IUPAC Golf

The Volatile Chemist - 26-7-2014 at 12:29

Chemistry Golf
Whoever is into programming has heard of 'golf' games. A 'golf' game is usually an online challenge to complete certain tasks with the least amount of characters or time used. Golf games like this are usually called code golf. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_golf) As rounds continue, points are added up, and eventually a person gets a score which they can compare with others, lower scores being better. An example is: http://regex.alf.nu/
How this relates to chemistry: A game of golf could be devised for naming organic compounds in the IUPAC standard, those with the shortest character length getting the least points per molecule. Would this be of interest? If I determine it is, you may find the page at ptp.x10.mx/iupacg.htm

aga - 26-7-2014 at 12:46

Hmm.
Volatile, just one thing to say :

Never Taste The Product.

The Volatile Chemist - 26-7-2014 at 13:24

Quote: Originally posted by aga  
Hmm.
Volatile, just one thing to say :

Never Taste The Product.

...What? What does this have to do with iupac golf programs?

Chemosynthesis - 27-7-2014 at 01:04

Sounds cool. Will you have multiple options for preferences on how to name ketones and where people like to put some numbers for ketones, double bonds, and alcohols?
ex. 1-hexanol vs. hexan-1-ol?

The Volatile Chemist - 27-7-2014 at 15:33

Quote: Originally posted by Chemosynthesis  
Sounds cool. Will you have multiple options for preferences on how to name ketones and where people like to put some numbers for ketones, double bonds, and alcohols?
ex. 1-hexanol vs. hexan-1-ol?

The only goal will be making it as short as possible. I'm not going to write a grading program, it'll be a submission process. I'll do the grading, and probably ask for help from time to time.

Chemosynthesis - 27-7-2014 at 19:25

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist  

The only goal will be making it as short as possible. I'm not going to write a grading program, it'll be a submission process. I'll do the grading, and probably ask for help from time to time.

Whoa. You are going to manually grade submissions?
Braver man than I, even sticking with organic nomenclature. Too many ways to spin oxo/one, nitrile/cyano and what-have-you for my liking, without a grading rubric of "or" statements.

The Volatile Chemist - 28-7-2014 at 14:46

Quote: Originally posted by Chemosynthesis  
Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist  

The only goal will be making it as short as possible. I'm not going to write a grading program, it'll be a submission process. I'll do the grading, and probably ask for help from time to time.

Whoa. You are going to manually grade submissions?
Braver man than I, even sticking with organic nomenclature. Too many ways to spin oxo/one, nitrile/cyano and what-have-you for my liking, without a grading rubric of "or" statements.

I may pop it into a chemical drawing program I have, I think it supports IUPAC and SMILES. I was thinking of a challenge, no points counted if you can list a IUPAC name that's shorter than a SMILES name for the chemical.