Restraints Vs. Constraints

The distinction has no single coiner and developed across multiple fields. The most formalised treatment of constraints as a systems concept came from Eliyahu M. Goldratt, whose 1984 management novel The Goal introduced the Theory of Constraints, distinguishing internal from external limits on throughput. In structural biology and crystallography, the constraint/restraint binary was codified through the 1980s–90s: constraints are absolute limits; restraints are soft biases toward a desired state.