Novel compounds having the formula: wherein the constituent variables are defined herein. The compounds are constructed to include a central aromatic, aliphatic, or heterocyclic ring system. Attached to the central ring system are two linear groups having nitrogenous moieties that are derivatized with chemical functional groups. The ring system can include further nitrogenous moieties, either as ring atoms or on pendant groups attached to the ring, that may also be derivatized with chemical functional groups. The totality of the chemical functional groups imparts certain conformational and other properties to the these compounds. In accordance with certain embodiments of the invention, libraries of such compounds are prepared utilizing permutations and combinations of the chemical functional groups and the nitrogenous moieties to build complexity into the libraries.