A brief history of rules

The Information Technology (IT) industry focused initially on the implementation (rather than documentation) of rules. Program code, mainly procedural, was for some time the only option, but over time alternative platforms for the implementation of rules emerged, such as databases (in terms of both rule sets in data and database constraints), graphical user interface building tools, XML schemas and, most recently, rules engines (although the last-named have not yet seriously replaced any of the other implementation platforms).