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everywhereȓ. In order for multiple implementors to create compatible virtual
machines, the virtual machine needed to be standardized. That is, someone needed
to create a definition of the virtual machine and its expected behavior.
Who creates standards? Some of the most successful standards have been created
by volunteer groups such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). You can find the Requests for Comment
(RFC) that standardize many of the Internet protocols at the IETF site,
http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html . For example, RFC 822 standardizes the format of
e-mail, and RFC 2616 defines the Hypertext Transmission Protocol (HTTP) that is
used to serve web pages to browsers. The W3ЮC standardizes the Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML), the format for web pagesȌsee http://www.w3c.org .
These standards have been instrumental in the creation of the World Wide Web as
an open platform that is not controlled by any one company.
Many programming languages, such as C++ and Scheme, have been standardized
by independent standards organizations, such as the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for StandardizationȌcalled
ISO for short (not an acronym; see
http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/aboutiso/introduction/whatisISO.html ). ANSI and ISO
are associations of industry professionals who develop standards for everything
from car tires and credit card shapes to programming languages.
The process of standardizing the C++ language turned out to be very painstaking
and time-consuming, and the standards organization followed a rigorous process to
ensure fairness and to avoid being influenced by companies with vested interests.
When a company invents a new technology, it has an interest in its invention
becoming a standard, so that other vendors produce tools that work with the
invention and thus increase its likelihood of success. On the other hand, by
handing over the invention to a standards committee, especially one that insists on
a fair process, the company may lose control over the standard. For that reason,
Sun Microsystems, the inventor of Java, never agreed to have a third-party
organization standardize the Java language. They run their own standardization
process, involving other companies but refusing to relinquish control. Another
unfortunate but comm on tactic is to create a weak standard. For example, Netscape
and Microsoft chose the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA)
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