EDI, phone systems, the basis of Unicode), data formats (ASN.
The ISO list contains the standards for programming languages (FORTRAN, C, BNF, ECMAScript, C#, CLI, Eiffel, Ada profile), graphics (CGM), networking and data interchange (OSI, X. This is perfectly adequate for a single open source developer or student.
MS C#) or even from individuals (as was the case with standardizing Schematron.)These standards do have some encumbrances: you have a single user license and you may only retain one printed copy. Where an ISO standard is based on a pre- existing external specification that is itself freely available, (a. However, many important ISO standards can be located and downloaded for free legally if you know where to look. The lack of free online availability has effectively made ISO standard irrelevant to the (home/hacker section of the) Open Source community. ISO/IEC standards can be purchased from ISO and usually from your local national body.
Where to get ISO Standards on the Internet free.