Sorry I may have spoken inaccurately. Wires can carry signals right-to-left (as you mentioned - this is necessary in any circuit containing feedback) but the _s

Sorry I may have spoken inaccurately. Wires can carry signals right-to-left (as you mentioned - this is necessary in any circuit containing feedback) but the _symbols_ should be drawn left-to-right in a digital logic schematic. Certainly there are different fields that follow different rules, for example in schematic representation of feedback systems the feedback blocks are often drawn right-to-left. They get away with it because their schematics are generally much simpler--usually a dozen or so blocks, compared to hundreds or thousands in a nontrivial digital circuit schematic. Also - I am not sure I understand your comment about 'extra ugliness and confusion of crossing signals'. Flipping the inverter backwards does nothing to remove the signal cross, it just moves the cross outside of the region you showed. Note how one of the inputs to your flipflop is now on the right hand side--in most cases the crossing will reappear when you connect the rest of your circuit.