Ecma International is an international private non-profit standards
organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its
current name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association
changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and
activities. As a consequence, the name is no longer considered an acronym and
no longer uses full capitalization. The organization was originally founded
in 1961 to standardize computer systems in Europe. Membership is open to large
and small companies worldwide that produce, market or develop computer or
communication systems, and have interest and experience in the areas addressed by
the group's technical bodies. It is located in Geneva.
Aims Ecma aims to develop standards and
technical reports to facilitate and standardize the use of information
communication technology and consumer electronics; encourage the correct use
of standards by influencing the environment in which they are applied;
and publish these standards and reports in electronic and printed form. Ecma
publications, including standards, can be freely copied by all interested
parties without copyright restrictions. The development of standards and
technical reports is done in co-operation with the appropriate
national, European and international organisations.
Unlike national standardization bodies, Ecma is a membership-based organization.
It takes pride in the resulting "business-like" approach to standards,
claimed to lead to better standards in less time, thanks to a less bureaucratic
process focused on achieving results by consensus.
For over 50 years Ecma has actively contributed to worldwide standardization
in information technology and telecommunications. More than 400 Ecma
Standards and 100 Technical Reports have been published, more than 2/3 of which
have also been adopted as international standards and/or technical reports.
The memberlist of Ecma International is available on its website.
Standards Ecma International is currently
responsible for several standards, including the following:
ECMA-6 – 7-bit Coded Character Set, also approved as ISO/IEC 646
ECMA-35 – Character Code Structure and Extension Techniques, also approved as
ISO/IEC 2022 ECMA-48 – Control Functions for Coded
Character Sets, also approved as ISO/IEC 6429
ECMA-119 – CD-ROM volume and filestructure
ECMA-130 – CD-ROM "Yellow Book" format ECMA-262 – ECMAScript Language
Specification ECMA-334 – C# Language Specification
ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure
ECMA-341 – Environmental design considerations for electronic products
ECMA-363 – Universal 3D File Format ECMA-367 – Eiffel: Analysis, design and
programming Language ECMA-372 – C++/CLI Language
Specification ECMA-376 – Office Open XML
ECMA-377 – Holographic Versatile Disc Recordable Cartridges
ECMA-378 – Read-Only Memory Holographic Versatile Disc
ECMA-388 – Open XML Paper Specification ECMA-402 – ECMAScript
Internationalization API Specification ECMA-404 – JSON
ECMA-408 – Dart language specification = Java programming language=
Although Sun Microsystems submitted its Java programming language to Ecma, Sun
subsequently withdrew the submission. Thus, Ecma is not responsible for the
standardization of Java. = Office Open XML formats=
Ecma is involved in the standardization of the Ecma Office Open XML format based
on the XML office document formats by Microsoft. The Ecma Office Open XML
maintenance process is currently performed by technical committee 45.
Eco Declaration In Ecma International Standard 370, Ecma
joined forces with the Scandinavian IT Eco Declaration organisation to put
forward a guideline for informing consumers about the environmental
practices of the manufacturers of ICT and consumer electronics products.
The IT Eco Declaration includes information on the environmental
practices of the manufacturer as well as product features, such as
environmentally conscious design, batteries, acoustic noise, electrical
safety, energy consumption, chemical emissions, substances and materials
included, and packaging. This makes it easy to compare different suppliers and
their products, as they all present the environmental features of their products
in the same way, through a common industry standard reporting form.
See also List of Ecma standards
European Committee for Standardization International Electrotechnical
Commission International Organization for
Standardization References
External links Official website
Index of Ecma Standards C# Language Specification