title: ISO/IEC Website and Charging for C and C++ Standards
body: <p>The ISO C Standard (ISO/IEC 9899) and the ISO C++ Standard (ISO/IEC 14882) are not published online; instead, one must purchase the PDF for each of those standards. I am wondering what the rationale is behind this... is it not detrimental to both the C and C++ programming languages that the authoritative specification for these languages is not made freely available and searchable online? Doesn't this encourage the use of possibly inaccurate, non-authoritative sources for information regarding these languages?</p>
  
  <p>While I understand that much time and effort has gone into developing the C and C++ standards, I am still somewhat puzzled by the choice to charge for the specification. The <a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/" rel="noreferrer">OpenGroup Base Specification</a>, for example, is available for free online; they make money by charging for certification. Does anyone know why the ISO standards committees don't make their revenue in certifying standards compliance, instead of charging for these documents? Also, does anyone know if the ISO standards committee's <a href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/" rel="noreferrer">atrociously looking website</a> is intentionally made to look that way? It's as if they don't want people visiting and buying the spec.</p>
  
  <p>One last thing... the C and C++ standards are generally described as "open standards"... while I realize that this means that anyone is permitted to implement the standard, should that definition of "open" be revised? Charging for the standard rather than making it openly available seems contrary to the spirit of openness.</p>
  
  <p>P.S.  I do have a copy of the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 and ISO/IEC 14882:2003, so please no remarks about being cheap or anything... although if you are tempted to say such things, you might want to consider the high school, undergraduate, and graduate students who might not have all that much extra cash. Also, you might want to consider the fact that the ISO website is really sketchy and they don't even tell you the cost until you proceed to the checkout... doesn't really encourage one to go and get a copy, now does it?</p>
  
  <p><b>Edit / Comment</b><br />
  It occurs to me that if the ISO standards committees were to make their revenues from certification that it would incentivize smaller but more frequent changes to the standard rather than very large revisions very infrequently. It would also incentivize creating an implementable standard (I doubt the ISO C++ committee would have introduced "export" in the first place if they got their revenues from certification).</p>
  
  <p>I have found a solution to one of the annoyances of not having the PDF online.... I have uploaded my copy of the standards into my Google Docs, so that I can still access it from any computer without carrying it around.</p>