HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A software standard is a
standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...
,
protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...
, or other common format of a document, file, or data transfer accepted and used by one or more software developers while working on one or more than one
computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and oth ...
s. Software standards enable interoperability between different programs created by different developers.


How it is used and applied

Software standards consist of certain terms, concepts, data formats, document styles and techniques agreed upon by software creators so that their software can understand the files and data created by a different computer program. To be considered a standard, a certain protocol needs to be accepted and incorporated by a group of developers who contribute to the definition and maintenance of the standard. Some developers prefer using standards for software development because of the efficiencies it provides for code development and wider user acceptance and use of the resulting application. For example, the protocols
HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaS ...
,
TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the su ...
,
SMTP The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients ty ...
,
POP Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ( ...
and FTP are software standards that application designers must understand and follow if their software expects to interface with these standards. For instance, in order for an email sent from
Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily an email client, Outlook also includes such functions as Calen ...
can be read from within the
Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Mail is an email service launched on October 8, 1997, by the American company Yahoo, Inc. The service is free for personal use, with an optional monthly fee for additional features. Business email was previously available with the Yahoo! ...
application, the email will be sent using SMTP, which the different receiving program understands and can parse properly to display the email. Without a standardized technique to send an email, the two different programs would be unable to accurately share and display the delivered information. Some other widely used data formats, while understood and used by a variety of computer programs, are not considered a software standard.
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
file formats, such as .doc and .xls, are commonly converted by other computer programs to use, but are still owned and controlled by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
, unlike text files ( TXT or RTF.)


Creation

In order for all parties to agree to a certain software standard that they all should use to make their software connect with each other, there are software
standards organization A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization (SDO), or standards setting organization (SSO) is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpr ...
s like W3C and ISOC that consist of groups of larger software companies like
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
and Apple Inc. Representatives of these companies contribute their ideas about how to make a single, unified software standard to address the data problem they are trying to handle. Complexity of a standard can vary depending on what kind of problem that they are trying to solve. For instance FTP (file transfer protocol) tries to solve a different problem than SMTP, which is concerned with sending and receiving email. Standards also need to be simple, maintainable and understandable. The software standard document that they create needs to detail every possible condition, types, elements, etc. in order to retain utility and serve the role for which it was created.


Open versus closed standards

A standard can be a closed standard or an
open standard An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a prerequisite to use open license, non-discrimination and extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in the development. There is no single definitio ...
. The documentation for an open standard is open to the public and anyone can create a software that implements and uses the standard. The documentation and specification for closed standards are not available to the public, enabling its developer to sell and license the code to manage their data format to other interested software developers. While this process increases the revenue potential for a useful file format, it may limit acceptance and drive the adoption of a similar, open standard instead.


See also

* List of computer standards * List of file formats


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Standard (Software)