Encyclopedia Dramatica once referred to 4chan.org as “the asshole of the Internets”, which in my humble opinion is pretty dead right. Allow me to paraphrase:

Nomenclature is the asshole of organic chemistry

Remember where you heard it first, and quote me if you want, but before you do anything else, go ahead and bookmark this link:

OPSIN – Open Parser for Systematic IUPAC nomenclature

Thank you @CheMagicOrg for the tip! This tool is pretty awesome. No longer do we need to dig deep into our pockets for ChemDraw or ACDLabs licenses to translate between names and structures. No longer do we need to clench our fists when authors (still in our days) call their compounds threo- or erythro-something.

Try it – you will like it. Spread the word. SMILES strings FTW.