Standards (software)

Software standards enable software to interoperate. Many things are (somewhat) arbitrary, so the important thing is that everyone agree on what they are.

Sometimes software standards are controlled by private corporations (the Windows GUI interface is owned by Microsoft). Sometimes software standards are controlled by open, public, or non-profit organizations (the Secure Shell 2 protocol is 'owned' by the IETF).

• Programming language syntax and semantics.

• Packet layout for Internet protocols.
  • Secure Shell 2
  • HTML
  • ...

• Software protocols
  • Client-Server interaction

• Platform
  • APIs