Editing Software standard (section)

==How it is used and applied==
Software standards consist of certain terms, concepts, data formats, document styles and techniques agreed upon by software creators so that their software can understand the files and data created by a different computer program. To be considered a standard, a certain protocol needs to be accepted and incorporated by a group of developers who contribute to the definition and maintenance of the standard.

Some developers prefer using standards for software development because of the efficiencies it provides for code development<ref>{{cite web|url=http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~kambara/old_site/software/software_standards.html|title=Software Standards|publisher=|accessdate=22 March 2016}}</ref> and wider user acceptance and use of the resulting application.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comptechdoc.org/independent/programming/programming-standards/|title=Software Standards Specification|publisher=|accessdate=22 March 2016}}</ref>

The protocols [[HTML]], [[TCP/IP]], [[SMTP]], [[Post Office Protocol|POP]] and [[FTP]] are examples of software standards that application designers must understand and follow if their software expects to interface with these standards. For instance, in order for an email sent using [[Microsoft Outlook]] to be read by someone using [[Yahoo! Mail]], the email must be sent using the [[Simple Mail Transfer Protocol|SMTP]] so that the recipient's software can understand and correctly parse and display the email. Without such a standardized protocol, two different software applications would be unable to accurately share and display the information delivered between each other.

Some other widely used data formats, while understood and used by a variety of computer programs, are not considered a software standard. [[Microsoft Office]] file formats, such as .doc and .xls, are commonly converted by other computer programs to use, but are still owned and controlled by [[Microsoft]], unlike text files ([[Text file|TXT]] or [[Rich Text Format|RTF]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biblioscape.com/rtf15_spec.htm|title=Rich Text Format (RTF) Version 1.5 Specification|publisher=|accessdate=22 March 2016}}</ref>)