# Flowchart (フローチャート)

> The process drawing the Gilbreths invented for work analysis. The grammar of shapes — diamond for decision, rectangle for process — passed through programming to become the common language of thinking in steps.

- IndexStyle No.434 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/flowchart
- Kind: Layout · Family: Diagrammatic Expression · Era: 1921–
- Mood: Technology, Trust, Play
- Color cues: #e9e6dd / #67635d / #171615 (cues taken from reference works, not a fixed palette)

## Defining characteristics

- A grammar of shapes
- The decision diamond
- Arrows of flow
- Start and end terminals

## Best used for

- Comparing primary sources and canonical works
- Extracting principles that transfer to other media

## Research method

This entry records a historical style; derive the treatment from its sources rather than a fixed recipe:

- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process

## What to avoid

Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.

## Application checklist

Before calling a piece an application of this style, check it against the defining characteristics:

- [ ] A grammar of shapes
- [ ] The decision diamond
- [ ] Arrows of flow
- [ ] Start and end terminals
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Circuit Diagram (回路図)** — Engineering's language of standardized symbols and orthogonal lines. Discarding physical placement to record only connection — a topology of drawing that preceded even the transit diagram. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/circuit-diagram
- **Schematic Transit Diagram (スキーマティック路線図)** — Discards geographic accuracy for horizontal, vertical and 45-degree lines with evenly spaced stations. Beck's 1933 London Underground diagram established it as the common language of transit maps worldwide. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/transit-diagram

## Further study

- the Gilbreths' ASME paper, 1921
- ISO 5807
- its rise and fall in software design

## Reference works

- ギルブレスのプロセスチャート記号 1921 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standard%20Symbols%20for%20Process%20Charts%20(1)%2C%201921.jpg
- 工程図 1921 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Process%20Chart%20for%20Loading%20Rifle%20Grenades%2C1921.jpg

## Source of record

- ASME — American Society of Mechanical Engineers — https://www.asme.org/

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/flowchart
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/flowchart/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compose_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)

## 日本語

ギルブレス夫妻が作業分析のために発明した工程の図法。判断の菱形・処理の長方形という形の文法は、プログラミングを経て「手順を考えること」自体の共通言語になった。

特徴: 形による工程の文法／判断の菱形／矢印の流れ／開始と終了の端子
注意: 表面的な記号へ還元せず、時代・地域・技術・制作主体の文脈を確認する。