Do you really go purchase the standard documents from ISO? Or does your employer? I'd love to have the actual standard "around for reference," but 700-page technical documents from ISO are not cheap.
The next best thing is the latest draft standards, which are available online for free (and I always have them on my laptop, PC, and personal server). Differences between them and final official standard are not important. Search for N1256, N1570. Or grab them here. http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/standards
(There are more readable html versions floating about)
