ISO/IEC TR 10176:2003(E) provides guidelines for the preparation of Programming Language Standards.

Standards for programming languages are developed by many committees from many countries, with many different editors supporting the effort. ISO thus considered it necessary to develop guidelines so that these standards cover at least the following subjects:

Consistent terminology

Consistent structure

Syntax and semantics

Error and exception handling

Provisions of options

Presentation of source programs

Processor dependences

Binding strategies to functional standards

Conformance definition

Internationalization and support of multiple languages

Cultural convention related functionality

Use of expanded character repertoire for identifiers

User documentation

The constant additions to ISO/IEC 10646, the Universal character set, necessitate timely updates of ISO/IEC TR 10176 to allow the use of local scripts and characters in programming languages. Annex A of ISO/IEC TR 10176:2003 provides such an expanded collection of characters, recommended for use in programming languages.