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I have seen some places referring the C++11 standard as "ISO/IEC 14882:2011(E)", while the ISO site is referring it as "ISO/IEC 14882:2011", without the trailing "(E)".
What does that "E" stand for?


Edit: As for the explanation of revision number, the standard was approved by ISO on Aug 12, 2011, and was published on September. Here is one with the trailing "(E)", and it clearly says the date was Sep 1, 2011. So I think it's unlikely it's already the fifth revision this soon.

WiSaGaN
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    iso docs use bracketed letters to indicate revision levels within a particular document version/release. so (E) is revision #5 – Marc B Sep 25 '12 at 03:38
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    @MarcB: You should post that as an answer. – Keith Thompson Sep 25 '12 at 03:41
  • @MarcB So what version or revision is "final"? – WiSaGaN Sep 25 '12 at 04:09
  • there's never a "final" version. there's always updates/revisions. – Marc B Sep 25 '12 at 04:24
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    I don't know the answer, but I'll say that Herb Stutter announced the official name of C++11 *when it was first standardized* and it's called `ISO/IEC 14882:2011(E)` ([reference](http://herbsutter.com/2011/08/12/we-have-an-international-standard-c0x-is-unanimously-approved/)). So it seems the `(E)` has been a part of C++11 since it was first *originally* ratified and published. – Cornstalks Sep 25 '12 at 04:40
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    @MarcB: Or maybe not ... – Keith Thompson Sep 25 '12 at 05:10

1 Answers1

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AFAIK, the '(E)' indicates an English language standard, as opposed to '(F)' for French. Many of the documents at the ISO web site are available in English and French. In fact, Wikipedia offers some help, noting that the three official languages of ISO are English, French and Russian.

One of the links on the page is to:

The 3 official full names of ISO can be found at the beginning of the foreword sections of the PDF document: ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004 Standardization and related activities — General vocabulary.

If you download the document, you'll see its code is: ISO/IEC GUIDE 2:2004(E/F/R) because it is in English, French and Russian.

I've not yet found where the notation is defined by ISO itself, though, but it will likely be in one of their guides.

J-16 SDiZ notes that the Unicode Consortium web site explicitly states:

Q: Is ISO/IEC 10646 also available for free download?

A: Yes. ISO/IEC 10646:2011 (E) is available for free download from: http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/index.html. The "(E)" and "(F)" in listings on that page refer to English or French editions of standards, respectively.

Community
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Jonathan Leffler
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  • This seems plausible. Could you provide more evidence? – WiSaGaN Sep 25 '12 at 04:35
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    Not sure if this is universal, but the ISO/IEC 10646 use this convention (see last question in http://www.unicode.org/faq/unicode_iso.html ) – J-16 SDiZ Sep 25 '12 at 04:40
  • I've just spent some time poking around the ISO site, looking for the 'rules on standard numbers', and I've not found it, though there's bound to be a standard for it. – Jonathan Leffler Sep 25 '12 at 04:41
  • @JonathanLeffler: look at the bottom of J-16's link. Notably: "The "(E)" and "(F)" in listings on that page refer to English or French editions of standards, respectively." – Cornstalks Sep 25 '12 at 04:42