RE: [OT] Corea? (was: Euro-English...)

From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Mon Dec 15 2003 - 18:37:37 EST

  • Next message: Philippe Verdy: "RE: [OT] CJK -> CJC (Re: Corea?)"

    Doug Ewell wrote:
    > Oops! I wrote:
    > > I don't think that implies any requirement to keep the names mnemonic,
    > s/names/codes/

    The recent changes in ISO 3166 prooves the opposite: country codes sometimes
    change without any requirement to do so:

    See "YU" which should have been left even if it's now Serbia-Montenegro, and
    that there's a provision for a further change for Serbia and Montenegro
    possible split; for now it's still a federation of two nations within one
    country, and until this federation decides to split and officially termiante
    the federation, I see no benefit in dropping the old code and leaving it
    reserved for a long time, if not permanently...

    Changes in 3-letter country/territory codes are also alarming.

    Changes in UN numeric country/territory codes are also OK as it is needed to
    reflect the current UN policy and its needs for statistics. Other changes in
    ISO 3166 concerning changes of names are OK (they are not directly mandated
    by ISO 3166, but just needed to map the codes to offical names for clarity
    in the standard)...

    But all this is completely out of topic of Unicode (we are more concerned
    here by language codes than by country/territory codes).

    Still, ISO 3166 or in UN codes is an incomplete standard, as it does not map
    correctly all dependant territories (see "YT" for Mayotte, which the UN
    still considers a part of Comores in its World Map updated and published in
    last August 2003, but that it also falsely documents as a French territorial
    collectivity, despite it is now a departmental collectivity, after its local
    population approved the new status which integrates it more tightly within
    France).

    Other missing codes in ISO 3166 and in UN statistics are:

    - Possessions of France ("TF" in ISO3166 or IANA):
            Bassas da India
            Clipperton Island
            Europa Island
            Glorioso Islands
            Juan de Nova Island
            Tromelin Island
    - British Crown Dependencies (missing in both ISO and UN codes):
            Guernsey
            Jersey
    - UK Territory ("GS" in ISO3166/IANA, missing in UN codes):
            South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
    - Australian territories:
            Ashmore and Cartier Islands
            Coral Sea Islands Territory
    - US Territories ("UM" in ISO3166/IANA):
            Baker Island
            Howland Island
            Jarvis Island
            Johnson Atoll
            Kingman Reef
            Midway Island
            Navassa Island
            Palmyra Atoll
            Paracel Islands (still claimed by neighbour countries?)
            Wake Island
    Now add to this the synchronization issues from ISO3166 into IANA ccTLDs...

    Add now the two remaining self-governing countries that are still not full
    members of the UN: Niue and Cook Islands which are in free association with
    New Zeland, exactly like Netherlands Antillas with the Netherlands, or
    Northern Marianas and Puerto Rico in association with US, or the Palestinian
    Authority with a "hybrid" half self-governing status which is still partly
    administered by Israel.
    There are still there some synchronization to find between UN, ISO3166, and
    the IANA ccTLD database...

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