Bebop to the Boolean Boogie, 3rd Edition

Chapter 10. Karnaugh Maps

The Tree of Porphyry

Diagrams used to represent logical concepts have been around in one form or another for a very long time. For example, Aristotle (384–322 bc) was certainly familiar with the idea of using a stylized tree figure to represent the relationships between (and successive subdivisions of) such things as different species. Diagrams of this type, which are known as the Tree of Porphyry, are often to be found in medieval pictures.

John Venn and his Venn Diagrams

Following the Tree of Porphyry, there seems to have been a dearth of activity on the logic diagram front until 1761, when the brilliant Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (whom we first met in Chapter 7: Alternative Numbering Systems) introduced ...