Understanding PubID Algebra — How Standards Documents Relate

Standards documents don’t exist in isolation. They have relationships: amendments modify base standards, corrigenda fix errors, standards come in multiple parts, and one publisher may adopt another’s standard. PubID algebra gives these relationships formal structure.

Why Algebra Matters

Without a formal model of identifier relationships:

• You can’t programmatically find all amendments to a standard
• You can’t determine that ISO 9001:2015/Amd 1:2024 is a supplement to ISO 9001:2015
• You can’t identify adopted standards like BS ISO 9001:2015 as British Standard’s adoption of the ISO original
• You can’t bundle related documents for procurement or reference

The Core Relations

Amendment

An amendment modifies a base standard by adding, changing, or deleting specified elements.

Corrigendum

A corrigendum corrects technical or editorial errors without adding new content.

Part

Multi-part standards are related through part numbers.

Adoption

One publisher may adopt another’s standard, often with national modifications.

Consolidated

A consolidated version incorporates all amendments into the base standard.

Implementation

In the PubID Ruby library, algebraic relations are modeled as first-class objects:

# Parse an identifier with a supplement
id = Pubid::Iso.parse("ISO 9001:2015/Amd 1:2024")

# Access the supplement
id.supplement  # => Amendment object

# Parse an adopted standard
id = Pubid::Bsi.parse("BS ISO 9001:2015")
id.adoption  # => The adopted ISO identifier

Learn More

• PubID Algebra reference — All relation types with examples
• Browse publishers — Per-publisher algebra support
• Library Quick Start — Start parsing identifiers