29-10-2012, 04:01 PM
C and C++ Standards
C And C++ Standards.pdf (Size: 33 KB / Downloads: 21)
New! There's a hot new programming language and its name is C!
The update to the International Standard for the C programming language, which has been under
development for the past several years, was ratified in the fall of 1999, and was published and became
official in December, 1999.
This fulfills the hope in the code name "C9X", that it would indeed be completed and ratified before the
end of the 1990's.
At this time the name of the standard is ISO/IEC 9899:1999. Note that there is no "ANSI" in the name.
This update to the C language standard has not been approved by ANSI and is not an American
National Standard at this time. There was a public comment submitted to ANSI about the standard, and
the author of the comment was not satisfied with the answer. ANSI's procedures require a ballot to
approve the standard under these conditions. This ballot is expected to be completed, and the updated
standard approved, by the end of April 2000.
The 1999 C Standard is available for purchase from ISO, ANSI, and NCITS. It is being sold as an
ISO/IEC standard, not an ANSI one, so the price is quite a bit higher than for the C++ standard. Once
ANSI approves the standard, it should become available in the $20.00 (US) price range. For now the
closest thing to the finished standard available is the final draft which was released for public comment.
It can be downloaded in several formats from the web site of the standards committee.
What are the current standards?
The current International Standard for the C programming language is ISO/IEC 9899:1999. The
current American National (ANSI) standard is ANSI/ISO/IEC 9899:1995 which includes three
additions and corrections since initial approval in 1990, until ANSI approves the 1999 update.
The current International Standard for the C++ programming language is ANSI/ISO/IEC 14882:1998
which first became a standard in 1998.
How to purchase standards from ANSI and NCITS.
Official ANSI/ISO/IEC standards are not available legally for free. Many of the national standards
organizations which make up ISO and IEC derive a large part of their operating revenue from the sale
of standards documents.
Originally standards documents were only available in hard copy, but ANSI now makes standards
available for purchase electronically at its web store, in English only. After registering and paying for a
standard with a credit card you can immediately download it in Adobe PDF format.
Apparently the utility of the Internet combined with a nearly universal format (Adobe Acrobat PDF
format, with free reader software available for many platforms) has caused a change in the way
standards will be prepared electronically and sold. The price for the ANSI/ISO/IEC 14882:1998 C++
language standard is $18.00 US and the document is 2.49 MB. However theprice for the
ANSI/ISO/IEC 9899:1990 C language standard (revised 1997) is $135.00 US and the file is 17.74
MB, despite the fact that the C standard is a much smaller document than the C++ standard. This leads
me to think that the C standard (which I have not purchased in this form) might consist of a scanned
hardcopy rather than being produced directly from the text electronically as the C++ standard is.