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De facto - Standards

De facto - Standards: Encyclopedia II - De facto - Standards

A de facto standard is a technical or other standard that is so dominant that everybody seems to follow it like an authorized standard. The de jure standard may be different: one example is the act of speeding found on highways. Although the de jure standard is to drive at the speed limit or slower, in many places the de facto standard is to drive at the speed limit or slightly faster. Another example: there is no law preventing a 27th letter such as Þ (thorn) from being added to the alphabet; indee ...

De facto: Encyclopedia II - De facto - Standards

De facto - Standards

A de facto standard is a technical or other standard that is so dominant that everybody seems to follow it like an authorized standard. The de jure standard may be different: one example is the act of speeding found on highways. Although the de jure standard is to drive at the speed limit or slower, in many places the de facto standard is to drive at the speed limit or slightly faster.

Another example: there is no law preventing a 27th letter such as Þ (thorn) from being added to the alphabet; indeed, letters were added centuries ago without much difficulty. But today one is prevented from doing so by the practical difficulties involved, and thus there is a de facto limit on modifications to the alphabet.

A de facto standard is sometimes not formalized and may simply rely on the fact that someone has come up with a good idea that is liked so much that it is copied. Typical creators of de facto standards are individual companies, corporations, and consortia. In computing, de facto standards can sometimes become de jure standards due to market superiority. For example, JavaScript by Netscape (standardized as ECMAScript) and parts of DOM Level 0 (stardardized in DOM Level 1/2 HTML Specification).