The document discusses various masonry design codes and philosophies. It explains that limit states design (LSD) is considered the most rational as it considers both safety under ultimate loads and serviceability under service loads, unlike working stress method (WSM) and ultimate load method (ULM). LSD has been adopted by most modern codes like ACI, IBC, and Eurocode. The document then discusses provisions for axial load, shear, and other limit states in different codes based on LSD and allowable stress design (ASD) formats.