Came across this: [https://whatwg.org/principles] that speaks of a technical standard being "living". It is explained as ""Living Standard" means a single, unified technical specification, published by the WHATWG as a Living Standard." Which makes little sense, i.e. using the term to define itself. Someone also called JSON a living standard. What is this philosophy?
All web searches seem futile as they point to "standards of living" related material.
So, what makes a standard "living standard"?
The difference to a usual standard is referring to the likelihood of the standard getting changed by feedback from pragmatic applications.<p>In contrast to standards that are developed by large committees where iterations tend to be slow and sometimes complicated.<p>I believe JSON is often an example for a living standard because it contrasts the numerous XML standards, which are so extensive that no or very few applications implement it to the letter.<p>Another example for the attempt to develop living standards are RFCs, where input is desired to adapt a possible future standard.
Why you do not give the more precise link <a href="https://whatwg.org/workstream-policy#living-standard" rel="nofollow">https://whatwg.org/workstream-policy#living-standard</a> ?
Afaiu, Theora video codec stopped being a living standard because Google and Mozilla have negotiated to wipe down it from their browsers. You can still watch videos encoded in Theora but not in modern browsers any more.
A living standard is just a standard that's continually maintained and updated, as opposed to frozen or finalized. I've never heard JSON referred to as one.<p>And while the phrase "standard of living" existing does make it harder to search for, I don't really believe that you weren't able to look it up yourself with a small bit of effort.