Systematic synthesis design. 8. Generation of reaction sequences

The numerical description of functionality allows a rigorous generation of all reactions from one structure (or partial structure) to another. The minimum number of steps required can be calculated and this “reaction distance” used to guide computer generation of sequences to converge on the target structure. A computer algorithm is described for efficient generation of all shortest synthetic routes between two given molecules as starting material and product. The program is seen as a prototype of a complete synthesis design program.