1.2 How to Read this Manual

This is OEChem's C++ Programming manual. It is a collection of prose covering many of the important topics which can be addressed by the OEChem library. This manual is meant to be read from front to back at least once. Each topic in this manual is introduced assuming the knowledge presented earlier in the manual has been read. Further, the complexity of topics as well as the complexity of the example code grows as the text progresses. While the initial listings are effectively the ``Hello World'' of OEChem, later examples may require some time to comprehend fully. This manual is filled with example programs. Each of these programs is compiled with OEChem on a regular basis. We encourage you to compile, test and modify the examples we present.

For a reference to OEChem's complete functionality, please see the associated Application Programming Interface (API) manual.