Questions tagged [standards]

Standards are rules and customs that the software industry considers to be important and are codified in some way, either as a formal specification like an ISO standard or a language specification or as a more informal document like rules for behavior at a workplace.

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Coding standard for clarity: comment every line of code?

I've worked in shops that produce life critical software and I've dealt with commenting rules that were meant to keep the code readable and potentially save lives. In my experience though the ...
candied_orange's user avatar
140 votes
3 answers
26k views

What's the phone number equivalent of example.org?

RFC 2606 standard reserves the domain names example.org, example.net and example.com for the purpose of being used as examples in documentation. What is an equivalent for a phone number (including ...
Florian's user avatar
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97 votes
2 answers
20k views

Why have hardware-accelerated vector graphics not taken off?

I'm working on an app that involves real-time manipulation of vector paths at 60fps, and I'm very surprised by how little information there is on the subject. At first, I tried to implement my idea ...
Archagon's user avatar
  • 1,187
52 votes
4 answers
18k views

Has Little Endian won?

When teaching recently about the Big vs. Little Endian battle, a student asked whether it had been settled, and I realized I didn't know. Looking at the Wikipedia article, it seems that the most ...
Ellen Spertus's user avatar
47 votes
4 answers
37k views

Should UTF-8 CSV files contain a BOM (byte order mark)?

Our line-of-business software allows the user to save certain data as CSV. Since there are a lot of different formats (all called "CSV") in use in the wild, we are tying to decide what the &...
Heinzi's user avatar
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45 votes
10 answers
40k views

What defines robust code?

My professor keeps referring to this Java example when he speaks of "robust" code: if (var == true) { ... } else if (var == false) { ... } else { ... } He claims that "robust code" means ...
Lotus Notes's user avatar
43 votes
7 answers
27k views

Does it make sense to standardize including a created date and last updated date field on all DB tables?

My boss is currently attempting to apply some development standards to our team, so we had a meeting yesterday to discuss the standards which was mostly going well until she brought up: All DB tables ...
Ed James's user avatar
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38 votes
3 answers
6k views

Why do programming language (open) standards cost money? [closed]

Isn't it counter-productive to ask for 384 Swiss franks for C11 or 352 Swiss franks for C++11, if the aim is to make the standards widely adopted? Please note, I'm not ranting at all, and I'm not ...
Tamás Szelei's user avatar
31 votes
1 answer
2k views

How does the C++ standards committee test their design ideas?

Does the C++ committee test their new design specifications with some sort of prototype compiler before releasing a new standard? Or do they release a standard which is, in effect, only theoretical ...
Matthew James Briggs's user avatar
28 votes
11 answers
3k views

Why are there so many competing filesystem designs? [closed]

Just a quick question, but why are there so many file systems still competing and in use today? (ntfs, fat32, ext3(ffs), etc) It seems that file system designers could agree upon the best aspects of ...
Dark Templar's user avatar
  • 6,293
27 votes
3 answers
21k views

Should I use WADL to describe my RESTful API?

I'm about to embark on a project that makes extensive use of a properly RESTful approach. That is, it uses HATEOAS and serves up resources in a manner that allows for general exploration by a client. ...
Gary's user avatar
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21 votes
2 answers
10k views

What is the current status of software support for JPEG-2000?

The general recommendation to record original scanned images used to be "use TIFF". But programmers need evolution of format for "evolution of software", and I need to evolve my system to change from ...
Peter Krauss's user avatar
18 votes
13 answers
6k views

Why would programmers ignore ISO standards? [closed]

One of the things I run into often is problems caused by programs which don't conform to ISO standardss. One example would be not using the ISO country tables but making up their own shorthands, ...
Pieter B's user avatar
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18 votes
4 answers
2k views

Is it necessary to follow the standard, take the C standard for that matter?

There are some very experienced folks on Stack Overflow who always talk about the C standard. People seem to not like non-portable solutions, even if they work for me. Ok, I understand that the ...
0decimal0's user avatar
  • 306
18 votes
2 answers
11k views

What standard superseded 830-1998?

I have been looking into how to document software projects more formally, and I have learned about IEEE 830-1998: Recommended Practice for Software Requirements Specifications. However, as you can ...
user1564158's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
999 views

What are the problems python 3 new features solve? [closed]

Python 3 new features say: we’re mostly fixing well-known annoyances and warts, and removing a lot of old cruft It mentions what is different (the fix) but not why (the problems). I have have ...
user712092's user avatar
  • 1,412
17 votes
9 answers
50k views

What's the difference between the terms "protocol" and "standard"?

I find the term "protocol" confusing (in the terms of computer science that is). If the protocol is just a set of rules, wouldn't it be easier if we used the term "standard" instead (like in "HTTP ...
Emanuil Rusev's user avatar
17 votes
12 answers
4k views

Is it worth reading the language specification? [closed]

I'm wondering if it is worth reading language specifications/standard documents (e.g. The Java Language Specification) if you aren't going to write a compiler/interpreter for the language or something ...
Anto's user avatar
  • 11.2k
17 votes
5 answers
4k views

What does it mean when some technology is a "standard"?

I started learning Java EE 7 and I am frequently coming across this term "standard", and I don't understand what it means. So, for example, here is a quotation from this book: Contrary to SOAP and ...
Djole Pi's user avatar
  • 181
17 votes
1 answer
902 views

Is C#-4.0 an open standard?

The Ecma-334 (ISO/IEC 23270:2006) standard corresponds to the version 2.0 of the language. Specification of version 4.0 is freely available from Microsoft, but Microsoft's open specifications list ...
Hossein's user avatar
  • 269
16 votes
8 answers
2k views

Python Coding standards vs. productivity

I work for a large humanitarian organisation, on a project building software that could help save lives in emergencies by speeding up the distribution of food. Many NGOs desperately need our software ...
Shroatmeister's user avatar
16 votes
4 answers
4k views

When should new C projects target very old C standards (>20 years old, i.e. C89)?

Occasionally I see major, relatively new, open source C projects targeting very old C standards, typically C89. An example is systemd. These projects have intelligent people at the helm so they ...
Praxeolitic's user avatar
  • 1,634
16 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is there an official standard regarding user password storage practices?

I recently used a government service that I had an account for from years ago. I couldn't remember my password for the service so I used the "forgot password" link and was astonished to see that this ...
Carson Myers's user avatar
  • 2,480
13 votes
11 answers
21k views

Is there a universal date format that anyone in the world can understand?

In Canada, everyone is familiar with the date format YYYY-MM-DD. In Europe or South Africa, they prefer DD-MM-YYYY. There are users from South Africa who get confused with the YYYY-MM-DD date format....
Thierry Lam's user avatar
  • 1,108
13 votes
1 answer
6k views

How important is the Acid3 Test anymore and what should replace it?

For a long while the default guide to latest standards support for browsers was the Acid 3 Test. I've just run this on Windows 7 (x64) for Chrome 15.0, Firefox 7.0, Safari 5.1 and IE 9.0 and they all ...
Dave Anderson's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
732 views

Why is it unrealistic to expect all browsers to support the same standards? [closed]

Ideally, we would have different browsers supporting the same standards and same code producing the same result on all browsers. That hasn't happened yet. What are the reasons why?
user928345's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
9k views

What is actually the difference between the GNU C Library and the C standard Library?

I sometimes see these two terms be used interchangeably. What is the actual difference between these two terms? How are they used differently? Are there any other alternatives to these two libraries?
yoyo_fun's user avatar
  • 2,297
12 votes
4 answers
2k views

Standards for reading code out loud?

Has anyone defined a standard for reading code out loud, for any language? I imagine this is important to software like screen readers for the vision-impaired. This sort of thing also comes up when ...
benzado's user avatar
  • 2,293
12 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why isn't the C standard free? [duplicate]

I'm gradually learning C, and, after my best attempt at piracy, have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to either shell out $60 to ANSI or settle for pirating the penultimate draft hosted on ...
Mark Amery's user avatar
  • 1,251
11 votes
9 answers
2k views

How important is it that you know the C++ standard?

I did try searching, but I did not see a similar question (either that or my search terminology was incorrect - if so, feel free to close). I am an avid user of SO, and I notice that there are lots ...
Nim's user avatar
  • 1,363
11 votes
4 answers
11k views

Is there any difference between return n and exit(n) in C?

Is there any difference between return n (in the main function) and exit(n) in C? Is it defined by C or POSIX standards or it depends on OS or compiler?
user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
4k views

Why is the function called lseek(), not seek()?

The C function for seeking in a file is called lseek(). Why ins't it called just seek()?
Niccolo M.'s user avatar
10 votes
5 answers
3k views

Consequences of not doing a REST API the "right" way?

I'll ask this question this way - what are the software engineering concerns for not implementing my REST API the "right" way? What do you mean the "right" way? Well, allow me to explain my ...
Michael Plautz's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
301 views

How and where do I publish my open standard?

I have been writing an open standard for a protocol I am developing. As far as writing concerns I have it under control. But the main question is where can I publish such document. I have been ...
user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
5k views

Rationale behind C library functions never setting errno to zero

The C standard mandates that no C standard library functions shall set errno to zero. Why exactly is this? I could understand it being useful for calling several functions, and only checking errno ...
Drew McGowen's user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
993 views

How should standards and process improvements be introduced to an organization without them?

I've been tasked with improving the software development process through the implementation of process improvements, of which we will most likely be using CMMI for Development, Version 1.3 as a ...
rjzii's user avatar
  • 11.3k
9 votes
2 answers
281 views

What defines a standard?

What defines a standard like HTML5, C++0x, etc.? Is it just that you hand something in to W3C/ANSI/ISO/..., they produce a couple hundred pages long document and suddenly it's a standard? Can't I, as ...
Dave O.'s user avatar
  • 320
8 votes
4 answers
588 views

Training a 'replacement', how to enforce standards?

Not sure that this is the right stack exchange site to ask this of, but here goes... Scope I work for a small company that employs a few hundred people. The development team for the company is ...
Mohgeroth's user avatar
  • 193
8 votes
4 answers
9k views

ASP.NET deployment/maintenance best practices

I have been in the web development industry for around 5 years now, always working in an open source environment. Mostly apache, mysql, and php with a little bit of ruby, using git for version control....
Jake's user avatar
  • 199
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Can a single simple language such as Clojure replace Html + JavaScript + CSS + Flash + Java Applets ...? [closed]

Please do not dismiss the idea right away. I know that it is hard to compete with a mainstream approach that already works (mostly), so my question is partly "academic". I also am aware that ...
Job's user avatar
  • 6,449
8 votes
1 answer
543 views

Change Management Standard

Is there any Change Management Standard which is widely accepted in software and other industries? I worked at several companies with absolutely different target domains (investment banking and ...
altern's user avatar
  • 755
7 votes
4 answers
2k views

The meaning of "function blocks of limited size of coding" in ISO 13849-1

Section 4.6.3 of ISO 13849-1 concerning "safety-related application software" has following provisions: c) Software design shall feature: semi-formal methods to describe data and control ...
lightweight's user avatar
7 votes
7 answers
21k views

Any standards for naming variables in for loops (instead of i,j,k) [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Why do most of us use 'i' as a loop counter variable? I was just writing a nested loop and got to the point where I was using l and m as variables to control for loops,...
zacaj's user avatar
  • 185
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

Safety-critical software and optimising compilers

I'm reading some internal documentation for code developed to the MISRA C guidelines, and I see that in compiler flags section of the documentation there is a note to compile with optimisation off (-...
Ken Y-N's user avatar
  • 319
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is there a standard for encoding recurring patterns of dates?

I'm trying to re-write a backend interface doohickey for a calendar, a todo list and another sort of calendar and found that they all were programmed to have subtly different formats for patterns of ...
Peter Turner's user avatar
  • 6,897
7 votes
2 answers
3k views

Custom HTML Tags: Are there any specifications stating a standard way to handle them?

It seems like for years they've just been given default styling and inline display. Is there a spec somewhere that has dictated this? I've looked over the RFC's but I'm not particularly good with RFC-...
blesh's user avatar
  • 909
7 votes
3 answers
1k views

Programming standards and principles to become better programmer [closed]

I am a c# developer. I have always been interested in increasing my skills and knowledge and trying to pickup new technology. However now I want to enhance my knowledge in Programming standards and ...
user avatar
6 votes
6 answers
429 views

Best Practices or Project Standards

As a software development contractor I've worked on many projects with differing standards and conventions. Quite often these conventions go against the software best practices we know and 'love'. ...
Jon Mitchell's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
3k views

Is there anything wrong with putting comments in an HTML closing tag?

I often write comments like this <div id="wrapper"> ... </div> <!-- id="wrapper" --> But what if I wrote them like this? <div id="wrapper"> ... </div id="wrapper"> ...
fet's user avatar
  • 458
6 votes
4 answers
5k views

C/C++: Who uses the logical operator macros from iso646.h and why? [closed]

There has been some debate at work about using the merits of using the alternative spellings for C/C++ logical operators in iso646.h: and && and_eq &= bitand & bitor ...
Jaime Soto's user avatar