VI
Preface
number of widely used and accepted traditional and/or trivial names,
these are also duly accounted for as far as possible. To aid understanding, explanatory comments are occasionally interspersed.
Finally it should be noted that nowadays most of the not too complex naming problems can be solved - quasi blindly - making use of an
appropriate computer program. Notwithstanding this, it is the firm conviction of the author that some elementary insight into function and
workability of chemical language belongs to the basic intellectual outfit
of a chemist. The main aim of this introductory treatise is, therefore, to
show chemists of every kind and level how to cope with their predominant means of communication, i. e., systematic chemical nomenclature.
After all are we dealing here with a meticulously elaborated, strictly
rational artificial language wich reflects in its organisation the characteristic analytical and synthetical thought and argumentation patterns
proper to chemistry. And, moreover, even from a purely linguistic viewpoint such an endeavour is surely not without a certain charm.
December 2000
D. Hellwinkel