English Dictionary
◊ STANDARD
standard
adj 1: conforming to or constituting a standard of measurement or
value; or of the usual or regularized or accepted
kind; "windows of standard width"; "standard sizes";
"the standard fixtures"; "standard brands"; "standard
operating procedure" [ant: {nonstandard}]
2: commonly used or supplied; "standard procedure"; "standard
car equipment"
3: established or widely recognized as a model of authority or
excellence; "a standard reference work" [ant: {nonstandard}]
4: (linguistics) conforming to the established language usage
of educated native speakers; "standard English"
(American); "received standard English is sometimes called
the King's English" (British) [syn: {received}] [ant: {nonstandard}]
5: regularly and widely used or sold; "a standard size"; "a
stock item" [syn: {stock}]
n 1: a basis for comparison; a reference point against which
other things can be evaluated; "they set the measure for
all subsequent work" [syn: {criterion}, {measure}, {touchstone}]
2: the ideal in terms of which something can be judged; "they
live by the standards of their community" [syn: {criterion}]
3: a board measure ◦ 1980 board feet
4: the value behind the money in a monetary system [syn: {monetary
standard}]
5: an upright pole (especially one used as a support)
6: any distinctive flag
English Computing Dictionary
◊ STANDARD
standard
Standards are necessary for {interworking},
{portability}, and {reusability}. They may be {de facto
standards} for various communities, or officially recognised
national or international standards.
{Andrew Tanenbaum}, in his Computer Networks book, once said,
"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of
them to choose from", a reference to the fact that competing
standards become a source of confusion, division,
obsolescence, and duplication of effort instead of an
enhancement to the usefulness of products.
Some bodies concerned in one way or another with computing
standards are {IAB} ({RFC} and {STD}), {ISO}, {ANSI}, {DoD},
{ECMA}, {IEEE}, {IETF}, {OSF}, {W3C}.
(1999-07-06)