I asked one of my county's building inspector: what is the reference when people say "the code specifies......"? He told me this was a reference to IRC 2000 edition.
I got on the web and apparently IRC is an acronym for International Residential Construction. I found 2000, 2003 & (soon to be released) 2006 editions.
I am puzzled why he recommended an "old" version.....maybe he knew that there was no updates after 2000, i.e., the publisher was low on inventory and produced books in 2003 &2006; but, the information is the same as the 2000 edition?
Different areas of the country use differing standards, but they almost always follow IRC specs. Here in NV we use CABO," Council Of American Building Officals" . Some municabilities use their own standards, but will still follow IRC or CABO. Most of the rules are the same, different wording to make it unnecessasarally vauge so-as to use the building inspector's judgement, and some of their judgement is lacking.
The updates only come out every several years because the practices will stay the same. I bet New Orleans will have some updates come out this year, just as FL's changed drastically after Hurr. Andrew. HTH, later, Nat