Re: [xml-dev] N universes of constraint specification

Possibly older?

The story of the blind men and an elephant originated in the Indian subcontinent from where it has widely diffused. It is a story of a group of blind men (or men in the dark) who touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes and learn that they are in complete disagreement.

It is a parable that has crossed between many religious traditions and is part of Jain, Buddhist, Sufi, Hindu and Bahá’í lore. The tale later became well known in Europe, with 19th century American poet John Godfrey Saxe creating his own version as a poem.^[1] The story has been published in many books for adults and children, and interpreted in a variety of ways.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 3:46 AM, Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com> wrote:

Just old ideas whose origins are, as I recollect, in a period of intense collaboration between Charles Goldfarb and James Clark. Be careful, Roger: these ideas are known to be dangerous.

On 05/07/2016 11:45 AM, Costello, Roger L. wrote:

Steve Newcomb wrote:

When we mess with a document that straddles
           N universes of constraint-specification, we
           shouldn't have to first pretend that it occupies
           space in only one of them at a time in order to
           test the validity of some component in each of
           them. We should be able to take a broader view,
           working in a meta-universe that contains all of
           the document's universes. In such a meta-space,
           we can comprehensively validate each individual
           component of such a document, in its living context.

Steve, this is awesome. Thank you.

/Roger