Manpage of FORMOL

Section: (1)

Updated: 02/2011 (formol v0.4)

NAME

Formol - a simple command-line molar weight calculator

SYNOPSIS

formol [OPTION] PATTERN

DESCRIPTION

Formol is a simple and easy to use command-line molar weight of chemical formula calculator. Formol parse argument PATTERN to compute a molar weight (g/mol). All the elements of the periodic table are recognized, till element 112 (Cn). It is possible to use brackets as parenthesis and some condensed form of chemical group. See section PATTERN below for more information about the syntax of the formula.

Project Home Page: http://formol.sourceforge.net

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

-h, --help : display some help about usage and exit.

-v, --version : display the version information of Formol and exit.

PATTERN

Formol use a simple left-to-right parsing to evaluate the molar weight of the given formula. The formula must contain ONLY letters (uppercase and/or lowercase), integer coefficients and eventually brackets. The coefficient must be on the right of the element or group he belongs. Do not use global or decimal coefficient (not yet implemented). Do not use white space. Some example:

work : CH3Cl, C2H5OH, EtOH, Si[OC2H5]4, CaF2

don't work : 6[H2O], FeO1.5, Al2 O3

In addition of the elements of the periodic table, some chemical groups notations are recognized for convenience:

Me : methyl group (CH3)

Et : ethyl group (C2H5)

Ph : phenyl group (C6H5)

LIMITATIONS

The coefficient must be <100 for single elements and <10 for groups in brackets. It is not possible to imbricate brackets.

LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2003-2011 Jerome Pinot.

You may redistribute copies of Formol under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

BUGS

Please report bugs to the developer: http://formol.sourceforge.net/contact.html.

AUTHOR

Formol was created by Jerome Pinot <ngc891@gmail.com>