A de facto standard, also known as an informal standard, is a standard that has become widely accepted and used in practice, even though it may not have been formally recognized or approved by any official standards organization. De facto standards often emerge as a result of market forces, as a product or technology becomes so widely adopted that it becomes the de facto choice for a particular task or application.
One example of a de facto standard is the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character encoding system, which was developed in the 1960s and has become the standard for encoding text in computers and other electronic devices. ASCII is not an official standard, but it has become so widely used that it is effectively the de facto standard for encoding text.
Another example of a de facto standard is the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) used to create web pages. While there are official standards for HTML, many web developers and designers use their own variations and extensions to the language, which have become widely accepted as the de facto standard in the industry.
There are a number of advantages to de facto standards. They often emerge as a result of market demand and are therefore more likely to be suited to the needs of users. They can also be more flexible and adaptable than official standards, as they are not bound by the same bureaucratic processes.
However, de facto standards can also have some disadvantages. Because they are not formally recognized, they may not have the same level of oversight and quality control as official standards. They may also be more prone to vendor lock-in, as companies may be more inclined to use proprietary technologies that are not interchangeable with those of their competitors.
In summary, a de facto standard is a standard that has become widely accepted and used in practice, even though it may not have been formally recognized by an official standards organization. De facto standards can offer some advantages over official standards, but they may also have some disadvantages, including a lack of oversight and the potential for vendor lock-in.