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De facto standard
 
 
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A de facto standard is a custom, convention, product, or system that has achieved a dominant position by public acceptance or market forces (such as early entrance to the market). De facto
De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning the fact" or in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation....
 is a Latin phrase meaning "concerning the fact" or "in practice", and is used in opposition to de jure
De jure

De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in principle" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing politics or legal situations....
 ("ordained by law").

In social sciences
Social sciences

The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including anthropology, communication studies, economics, human geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology....
, a de facto standard is a usual solution to a coordination problem.






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A de facto standard is a custom, convention, product, or system that has achieved a dominant position by public acceptance or market forces (such as early entrance to the market). De facto
De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning the fact" or in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation....
 is a Latin phrase meaning "concerning the fact" or "in practice", and is used in opposition to de jure
De jure

De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in principle" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing politics or legal situations....
 ("ordained by law").

In social sciences
Social sciences

The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including anthropology, communication studies, economics, human geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology....
, a de facto standard is a usual solution to a coordination problem. The choice
Decision making

Decision making can be regarded as an outcome of mental processes leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice....
 of a de facto standard is the better choice for situations in which all parties can realize mutual gains, but only by making mutually consistent decisions.

De facto technical standard
Standard

A technical standard is an established norm or requirement. It is usually a formal document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes and practices....
s or often but not always proprietary
Proprietary

The word proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property.Terms relating to Proprietary include:...
 – for example, proprietary protocol
Proprietary protocol

In telecommunications, a proprietary protocol is a communications protocol owned by a single organization or individual....
s.

Examples

Well-known and illustrative examples:

  • The QWERTY
    QWERTY

    QWERTY is the most used modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computer keyboard and typewriter keyboards. It takes its name from the first six Graphemes seen in the far left of the keyboard's top row of letters....
     system was one of several options for the layout of letters on typewriter
    Typewriter

    A typewriter is a Machine or electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause Typeface to be printed on a medium, usually paper....
     (and later keyboard
    Keyboard (computing)

    In computing, a keyboard is an input device, partially modeled after the Typewriter#Keyboard layout, which uses an arrangement of buttons or Push-button, which act as mechanical levers or electronic switches....
    ) keys. It became a de facto standard because it was used on the most commercially successful early typewriters, and once people had learned the QWERTY layout they did not want to re-learn a different system.
  • When the VHS
    VHS

    The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard developed by JVC and launched in Europe and Asia in September 1976, and the United States in June 1977....
     format for videotape
    Videotape

    Videotape is a means of recording images and sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to film stock.In most cases, a helical scan video head rotates against the moving tape to record the data in two dimensions, because video signals have a very high bandwidth, and static heads would require extremely high tape speeds....
     recording was introduced, other recording formats were already available in the market. Many believed that the rival Betamax
    Betamax

    Betamax is an obsolete home videocassette tape recording format developed by Sony, and released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contained 1/2 inch wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional 3/4 inch U-matic videocassette format....
     system was superior from a technical point of view, however the VHS format won the format war
    Format war

    A format war describes competition between mutually incompatible proprietary formats, typically for data storage devices and recording formats for electronic media....
     due to superior marketing tactics by its proponents. The market could not support two competing formats; VHS became the de facto standard and Betamax was eventually withdrawn.
  • The driver's seat side in a country.
  • The use of the AA battery
    AA battery

    A AA battery is a dry cell-type Battery commonly used in portable electronic devices. The AA battery type was standardized by ANSI in 1947, and is designated E91 by Deutsches Institut f?r Normung and AM3 by Japanese Industrial Standards....
     (as opposed to AAA or other previously proposed standards for low-voltage and small-size batteries).
  • The 12.7 mm spacing of the rollers in a bicycle chain
    Bicycle chain

    A bicycle chain is a roller chain that transfers power from the Bicycle pedals to the drive-Bicycle wheel of a bicycle, thus propelling it. Most bicycle chains are made from steel or alloy steel, but some are chrome-plated or stainless steel to prevent rust, or simply for aesthetics....
    .
  • Computer file formats:
    • AutoCAD DXF
      AutoCAD DXF

      AutoCAD DXF is a Computer-aided design data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling CAD data exchange between AutoCAD and other programs....
      : a de facto ASCII format
      ASCII

      American Standard Code for Information Interchange , is a coding standard that can be used for interchanging information, if the information is expressed mainly by the written form of English words....
       for import/export of CAD drawings and fragments in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2000s, XML standards such as SVG
      Scalable Vector Graphics

      Scalable Vector Graphics is a family of specifications of XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic ....
       emerged as de facto standards.
    • HTML
      HTML

      HTML, an Acronym and initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document?by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on?and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded '...
       is a good example of "de facto and de jure" standard.
    • Portable Document Format
      Portable Document Format

      Portable Document Format is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system....
       (PDF) was first published in 1993 by Adobe
      Adobe Systems

      Adobe Systems Incorporated is an United States computer Computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. The company has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray into rich Internet application software development....
      . Adobe internal standards were part of its software quality
      Software quality

      In the context of software engineering, software quality measures how well software is designed , and how well the software conforms to that design , although there are several different definitions....
       systems, but they were neither published nor coordinated by a standards body. With the Acrobat Reader program available for free, and continued support of the format, PDF eventually became the de facto standard for printable web document
      Web document

      Web document is a similar concept to web page, except it is a broader termwith the following distinctions: ...
      s and e-book
      E-book

      An e-book is the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book. Such documents are usually read on personal computers, or on dedicated computer hardware devices known as e-book readers or e-book devices....
      s. In 2005, PDF/A
      PDF/A

      PDF/A is a file format for the long-term archiving of electronic documents. It is based on the PDF Reference Version 1.4 from Adobe Systems and is defined by ISO 19005-1:2005, an International Organization for Standardization Standard that was published on October 1, 2005:...
       became a de jure standard as ISO 19005-1:2005. , PDF 1.7 is under development as ISO/DIS 32000.
  • Buttonhole
    Buttonhole

    Buttonholes are holes in fabric that are paired with functional buttons that serve as fasteners. Buttonholes may be either made by hand sewing or automated by a sewing machine....
    s on the left and buttons on the right side of men's shirts, and vice versa for women's shirts.
  • The IBM Personal Computer format, which used MS-DOS
    MS-DOS

    MS-DOS is an operating system commercialized by Microsoft. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems and was the main operating system for personal computers during the 1980s....
     and Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows

    Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ....
     operating system
    Operating system

    An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
    s, gained a large share of the personal computer market. Competing products like the Rainbow 100
    Rainbow 100

    The Rainbow 100 was a microcomputer introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1982 to compete in the IBM PC market. This desktop unit had the video-terminal display circuitry from the VT102, a video monitor similar to the VT220 in a box with both Zilog Z80 and Intel 8088 CPUs....
     were eventually withdrawn.

See also

  • De facto
    De facto

    De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning the fact" or in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation....
  • Free market
    Free market

    A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights, and is also free of private force and fraud....