The theory of buildings, created by J. Tits three decads ago, has ooered a uniied geometric treatment of nite simple groups of Lie type, both of classical and of exceptional type. (See Tits 19] and 20] for an exposition of that theory; also Ronan 15] and Brown 1].) Diagram geometry (see 13] for an exposition) is a generalization of the theory of buildings. It has been invented by F. Buekenhout ...