Re: GNU chem maintenance

[Norwid Behrnd]

Dear Branden

One the papers which cite the `chem` paper by Bentley, Jelinsky, Kernigham I
became aware of is "LITTLE LANGUAGES FOR PICTURES IN AWK" by Bentley.  There
is a small section (around figure 7) about `chem`, too -- mirrored/rescued
for example in Arnold Robbin's public `dformat` repository

<https://github.com/arnoldrobbins/dformat>

however it was not yet possible for me to replicate for instance the example
of the Newman projection -- even with `chem` and a block fenced by `.cstart`
and `.cend`.

In `groff-1.23.0/contrib/chem/chem.pl` I didn't notice a function/routine with
either `Newman`, or `newman`.  Could this mean (in analogy to `awk` vs for
instance `gawk` and `nawk`) that there are multiple implementations of `chem`?

> 
> Would someone like to volunteer to take over maintenance of GNU chem?
> 

For now, it is not a spontaneous agreement on my side to work on the code
because it has been for a quite long time I did not write Perl.  Though
without a link to a specific web page, I remember Kernighan once listed wishes
/ desiderata to improve `chem` further -- maybe compiled when GUIs like
ChemDraw to prepare drawings where not yet this popular, as they are today.
Does it render `chem` obsolete?  I don't think so -- there still is the need
(in chemistry related writing) for an occasional sum formula in a running
text, or a brief block of a redox reaction (like `2 H2 + O2 -> 2 H2O`).

Best regards,

Norwid