There are dozens of formats with slightly different sizes and long tails that never fully disappear.
There is almost no rhyme or reason to it and a lot of it feels like it's just been passed down.
After a while, a format can no longer be considered optional. Once again, I see the same pattern with software and I was curious how others view the same phenomenon.
Which standards survived due to inertia? Which lost better alternatives? Where was the emphasis on compatibility over design?
Im confused by this line, standards are meant to promote compatibility, not design. They're a way to, well... standardise processes and things. Its almost a given that you'll have to compromise on design to be able to include enough variance to appease the majority of use cases. It is also desirable, I think, of a standard to not give in to edge cases and niche uses and stay as simple as it can to the general use. There will be other niche standards for those and that is a good thing.
Standards survive and die for the same reason they're created, they make things cheaper, faster and easier. Once they fail at those, they give in to newer entrants. Physical standards can also make things safer, but safety must be enforced as people often are bad at judging risk and prefer the other features to a fault.
It also makes me wonder what the future of the form will be. Historically speaking we’re still at the very beginning of it.
Lammy•6h ago
R.I.P. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rogge
I went ahead and mirrored this entire site, and his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelRogge
croisillon•5h ago
and then there is Olive Riley (b. 1899) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Riley
dcminter•2h ago