THE SHEFFIELD GENERIC STRUCTURES PROJECT - A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW

The problems posed by the requirements for storage and manipulation of generic chemical structure definitions in patents are reviewed. Chemi sts and patents agents have developed an armory of linguistic devices over many decades so that a generic structure description can describe large and often unlimited numbers of substances as a result of the co mbinatorial opportunities provided. The nature of these linguistic dev ices is defined, and the theoretical foundations devised during the Sh effield project for the successful solution of the problems in order t o provide the desired retrieval facilities are reviewed. Progress towa rd the practical implementation of a system based on these solutions i s evaluated. The relevance of the data structures and algorithms devis ed in this work to the issues raised by developments in combinatorial Libraries is also reviewed.