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