Rajarshi Guha, one of the editor-in-chiefs at the Journal of Cheminformatics is compiling a series on programming languages in chemistry/cheminformatics. An editorial introducing the series discusses some of the goals.

The first review in the series concerns the JavaScript programming language, and is written by our own President, Kevin Theisen: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13321-019-0331-1

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

When the Internet was introduced, society quickly changed, not just in allowing computers to communicate with each other, but by allowing people to communicate with each other, nearly instantaneously from around the world. JavaScript (JS) is a programming language born of the Internet. From a crude and basic programming language for creating cheap, gimmicky effects on web pages, it has developed into a ubiquitous and flexible technology where engine performance is regarded as a crowning achievement among browser developers. Today, every computational device, from desktops to laptops to mobile phones and Augmented Reality (AR) devices has essential access to the Internet, and therefore contains a web browser wherein JavaScript can be run. As a result, JavaScript is one of the most important programming languages in existence.

This review investigates the relevance and impact of JavaScript on the chemistry discipline. We begin by discussing the history of the programming language; then we investigate the scope and features of the language and how it applies to chemistry; last, an outline of the technical details of the JavaScript programming language is presented to allow those interested in chemistry and cheminformatics to effectively create JavaScript applications.

The JavaScript review is a great resource for a large of number of readers, including professionals, those in chemistry that would like to begin programming, programmers who would like to create chemistry products, and students of all scientific disciplines. A number of JavaScript chemistry tools is also discussed, if you are looking for solutions. The Journal of Cheminformatics is an open access journal, so the review is freely accessible to anyone that is interested. We encourage you to check out the article and please pass it to those that would benefit.

More instruction related to the ChemDoodle Web Components can be found within our tutorial.

If you are interested in discussing this review, please feel free to reach out by contacting us or connecting to Kevin Theisen on LinkedIn.