Reference implementation: Difference between revisions

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== Characteristics and examples ==

Reference implementations of algorithms, for instance [[cryptographic algorithm]]s, are often the result or the input of [[standardization]] processes. In this function they are often dedicated to the [[public ___domain]] with their [[source code]] as [[public ___domain software]]. Examples are the first [[CERN HTTPd|CERN's httpd]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140817185526/http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/birth-web/licensing-web The birth of the web Licensing the web] on cern.ch (2014)</ref> [[Serpent (cipher)|Serpent]] cipher, [[base64]] variants,<ref>[http://libb64.sourceforge.net/ libb64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112043156/http://libb64.sourceforge.net/ |date=2021-01-12 }} on sourceforge</ref> and [[SHA-3]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170630041850/http://keccak.noekeon.org/KeccakReferenceAndOptimized-3.2.zip KeccakReferenceAndOptimized-3.2.zip] mainReference.c ''"The Keccak sponge function, designed by Guido Bertoni, Joan Daemen, Michaël Peeters and Gilles Van Assche. For more information, feedback or questions, please refer to our website: http://keccak.noekeon.org/Implementation{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} by the designers, hereby denoted as "the implementer". To the extent possible under law, the implementer has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to the source code in this file. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"''</ref> The [[Openwall Project]] maintains a list of several algorithms with their reference [[source code]] in the public ___domain.<ref>[http://openwall.info/wiki/people/solar/software/public-___domain-source-code Source code snippets and frameworks placed in the public ___domain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925075438/https://openwall.info/wiki/people/solar/software/public-___domain-source-code |date=2020-09-25 }} on [[Openwall Project|openwall.info]]</ref>

A reference implementation may or may not be production quality. For example, the [[Fraunhofer Society|Fraunhofer]] reference implementation of the [[MP3]] standard usually does not compare favorably to other common implementations, such as [[LAME]], in listening tests that determine sound quality.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} In contrast, [[CPython]], the reference implementation of the [[Python programming language]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Snow |first1=Eric |title=PEP 421 -- Adding sys.implementation |url=https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0421/#motivation |website=Python.org |publisher=Python Software Foundation |access-date=6 January 2017 |date=2012-01-26 |quote=For a number of years now, the distinction between Python-the-language and CPython (the reference implementation) has been growing. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107095832/https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0421/#motivation |archive-date=7 January 2017 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> is also the implementation most widely used in production.