RNA structure tool

By anders pearson 25 Nov 2000

for fun i implemented a dynamic programming algorithm for finding the least energy conformation of an arbitrary RNA strand and added a bit of code for drawing a nice ASCII representation of the complementary pairs that it finds. not tremendously useful but fun to play with. i would do a terrible job of explaining what a “least energy conformation of an RNA strand” is or why anyone would care about such things so i won’t. if you don’t know what “dynamic programming” is, take a gander at the source code and marvel at the counter-intuitiveness.

it’s amazing what insomnia can accomplish.