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AsciiChem

What's new in v0.2

v0.2 adds the features identified during v0.1 implementation. Each ships with spec coverage and is documented in a dedicated page.

Reaction cascades

A -> B -> C parses into a single ReactionCascade. Each step’s products are the next step’s reactants. Mixed arrow kinds work. See Reactions.

Linter framework

asciichem lint -i "..." runs a growing suite of chemistry checks: bracket balance, isotope sanity, stoichiometric balance, valence. Adding a check is one new file plus one autoload entry. See Round-trip conformance.

Stereochemistry

(R)-, (S)-, (E)-, (Z)-, (α)-, (β)- prefixes attach to molecules. AsciiMath-style typed words (alpha, beta) are accepted. See Stereochemistry.

All bond kinds

Single, double, triple, quadruple, wedge, hash, dative, wavy — eight kinds, all reachable from the grammar and round-tripping exactly. See Bonds in detail.

Greek dictionary

AsciiMath-style word → Unicode translation. 24 lowercase + 24 uppercase. Stereo accepts alpha/beta; the dictionary is available for any future site (conditions text, spectroscopy notation).

Fuzzing corpus + benchmarks

15 hand-curated .asciichem files assert every grammar production parses cleanly. Benchmark suites measure parse, round-trip, and MathML throughput for regressions.

Try it

Section titled “Try it”
Terminal window
gem install asciichem
asciichem convert -i "(R)-CH_3" -t mathml
asciichem convert -i "Re##Re" -t latex
asciichem lint -i "H_2 + O_2 -> H_2O"
asciichem lint -i "^5C"

The lint output:

[error] Reaction is not balanced: O: 2 vs 1
[error] Isotope mass 5 is less than atomic number 6 for C

Spec coverage

Section titled “Spec coverage”

The gem now has 216 RSpec examples, 0 failures. Coverage spans:

  • Every model class (Atom, Molecule, Group, Bond, Reaction, ReactionCascade, ElectronConfiguration, EmbeddedMath, Text, Formula)
  • Every grammar production
  • All five formatters (MathML, Text, HTML, LaTeX, SVG)
  • Linter framework + every check
  • 15 fuzzing corpus files
  • Round-trip conformance
  • End-to-end real-world chemistry

Roadmap

Section titled “Roadmap”

What’s still pending for v0.3+:

  • 2D structural formulae via elk-rb (TODO 18)
  • Lewis structures (lone pairs, radicals) (TODO 22)
  • Visual regression baselines (TODO 23)
  • Balance / valence checks need refinement for branched molecules
  • Greek word translation in condition text (currently raw text)