Computer System Standards

Computer System Standards

1. De Facto Standards

   • This form of standard develops over time because of common usage.
   • They ensure that files and systems can be used by anyone
   • Examples: Post Script, QWERTY LAYOUT, Microsoft word.

2. De Jure Standards

   • 'By Law'
   • These are de facto standards which must be followed otherwise communication is impossible
   • Examples: 801.11 wireless standard, TCP/IP, ASCII, PDF and Unicode

3. Proprietary Standards

   • These standards are owned by an organisation ensuring compatibility between the companies products.
   • This reduces competition from rival products, apple computers lock users into using apple software.
   • Ensures that all applications run on that software have the same look and feel making them easier to understand.

4. Industry Standards

   • Set by non-commercial organisations
   • Examples: ANSI (for programming languages), IEEE (electronic interfaces), ITU (Standards for communication) and ISO (international standards organisation)

5. Open Standards

   • These a publicly available, produces together and are created not for profit and are free or small costs.
   • Open standards ensure that access to resources is not affected by a single application or hardware platform.
   • Examples, HTTP, HTML, VoiceXML, SQL