Diagramwhich

Diagramwhich is a diagrammatic formalism used to represent choices, disambiguation, and conditional reasoning within a diagram. It draws on ideas from flowcharts, decision diagrams, and visual logic, but foregrounds the notion of which option is selected at a given point in a process. The term is used mainly in theoretical discussions and informal teaching materials rather than as a standardized notation.

Structure and notation

Most diagramwhich variants use a directed graph with nodes that represent states, questions, or options, and edges that encode transitions or implications. A subset of nodes, called which-nodes, explicitly label the available alternatives. The value of a diagramwhich is the path chosen through the graph under a given input or set of constraints. Evaluation rules may require that which-nodes be resolved in a sequential or parallel manner, depending on the model. Some versions use color coding, labels, or annotations to indicate the level of importance or the order in which choices are considered.

Semantics and applications

In practice, diagramwhich can model user decision flows, diagnostic reasoning, or natural language disambiguation tasks, where the question “which option?” must be answered to proceed. By marking which-nodes and including conditional edges, the diagram can express both the space of possibilities and the criteria that select among them. It serves as a visual aid for exploring alternatives, testing hypothetical scenarios, and teaching logic and problem-solving.

Relation to other work

Diagramwhich shares ideas with decision diagrams, influence diagrams, and constraint graphs, but emphasizes the explicit representation of “which” choices. It is used mainly as an educational or exploratory tool rather than a commercial standard.

History

Origin and formalization of diagramwhich are informal; the term appears in several online discussions and teaching notes in the 2010s–2020s. No single standard has consolidated its notation, and different communities may adopt varying conventions for node types and evaluation rules.