L2/05-092

Source: Mark Davis
Date: 2005-04-18
Subject: Unknown Country

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The proposal is that the UTC and L2 request that the registrar for ISO 3166
standard for country (region) codes add a special codes to indicate an
unknown/undetermined country/region. Most of the other similar ISO standards
have provision for special codes for this, which turns out to be very useful
in implementations to indicate missing or unspecified information.

1. ISO 639 has two special codes
und ; Undetermined
mul ; Multiple languages

2. ISO 15924 has three special codes:
Zxxx ; Code for unwritten languages
Zyyy ; Code for undetermined script
Zzzz ; Code for uncoded script

3. ISO 4217 has two special codes:
XXX ; The codes assigned for transactions where no currency is involved
XTS ; Codes specifically reserved for testing purposes

ISO 3166 uses ZZ, XA..XZ for private use, so those aren't available. ZX and
ZY are, however, as are UN.

‎Mark

P.S. Benson pointed out an alternative possibility listed below in * ;-)

Who would fardels bear,
. . .
But that the dread of something after death,
The *undiscovered country*, from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others we know not of.