Editing Openai/693c70a4-9498-8011-87ee-efb5576cc53d (section)

=== Assistant: You’re right to question this — because “standard” here does NOT mean a law, ISO spec, or formal document. ===
You’re right to question this — because “standard” here does NOT mean a law, ISO spec, or formal document.
That’s the missing piece that makes everything feel arbitrary.

Let me be precise and honest.

==== ### ====

These come from bodies like:
* ISO
* IEEE
* W3C
* IETF (RFCs)

Examples:
* HTTP (RFC 9110)
* HTML (W3C)
* TLS
* TCP/IP

👉 These are real, explicit standards.

===== These arise because: =====
* Tools adopt them
* Ecosystems depend on them
* Changing them would break everything

Examples:
* /src directory
* package.json
* .gitignore
* node_modules/
* dist/, build/, site/
* CI/CD pipelines

👉 This is what you’re dealing with.

There is no ISO document saying “you must use src/”.
Instead, there is something stronger: ecosystem lock-in by consensus.

==== From a governance / systems / infrastructure mindset: ====

: 

In DevOps / software engineering, authority often comes from:
* Toolchains
* Market dominance
* Compatibility pressure

Not from committees.

That’s why this feels messy and under-defined.

==== Not people. Tools do. ====

For example:

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If you violate these conventions:
* Tools still run
* But automation breaks
* CI/CD becomes brittle
* Teams lose confidence

So the “standard” is enforced by pain, not law.

==== Because in practice: ====
* 90%+ of projects follow it
* Tooling assumes it
* Documentation refers to it
* Onboarding depends on it

That’s the definition of a de facto standard.

It’s the same reason:
* QWERTY keyboard is “standard”
* USB-A existed for decades
* POSIX exists alongside ISO C

==== You’re asking: ====

: 

That question usually comes from:
* Architects
* Infrastructure engineers
* Policy designers
* Safety-critical systems

Most frontend tutorials never explain this layer — they just assume compliance.

==== There is no single global standard for: ====
* src/
* site/
* “source vs artifact”

There is only:

: 

And yes — that is weaker than ISO, but stronger than personal preference.

==== Because you think in governance terms, the correct move is: ====

===== Document it once, clearly: =====

<syntaxhighlight>WSI Web Projects – Structural Rules
# src/ = human-authored source
# site/ = build output (never edited)
# GitHub = source of truth
# VPS = read-only deployment target

</syntaxhighlight>

Once written:
* Your confusion disappears
* Future contributors align instantly
* You stop relying on “tribal DevOps knowledge”

This is exactly what mature organizations do.

==== You’re not missing a standard. ====

You’re discovering that:

: 

And your discomfort with that is reasonable.

If you want, I can:
* Formalize this into a WSI internal standard doc
* Map de facto standards → explicit WSI rules
* Or show where actual formal standards end and conventions begin

Just say which direction you want to go.