Hi Barry. Always interesting to read from you.
When I started my "career" around 15 years ago, IIRC we all said "CCF", which is slightly confusing since it is a file format too. It seems like today everyone is saying "Pronto Hex" or such. (Strictly speaking, "hex" is outright wrong; it means six, not sixteen; should be "hexadecimal".) FWIW, I have just changed my programs IrScrutinizer and IrpTransmogrifier to say "Pronto Hex" instead of "CCF".
Global Cache has a "control tower" which it claims is the first on-line database of IR codes. I |seriously doubt that. It is perhaps the first professionally maintained on-line database with a complete API and a web-based interface for finding IR codes by manufacturer/device type/model.
Well, there is
http://irdb.tk/ and the previous GlobalCache data base
http://irdatabase.globalcache.com/ , both having an API, and was there before Controltower. (All three of them are directly supported in IrScrutinizer, btw.)
Actually, I am pretty disappointed by the API of Control tower: Free users (which are allowed 5 command sets per day using email), cannot use the API to get IR signals at all, just the names of the commands.