An International Standard (IS) is the most formal consensus document approved by ISO's member nations, and so also requires the most ballotting for approval. We have one main IS: The C++ standard itself, project 14882. A Technical Specification (TS) is a standalone document that contains technical specification meat (such as library class descriptions and language features) in some self-contained separable area, but where that specification isn't quite ready to be put into an IS, either because it's still immature or because some feel it's mature but there is not yet consensus. The TS mechanism allows the committee to publish a document to encourage implementation and gain experience in a subject area before proposing it for the standard itself; ... |