Message-Id: <6.1.2.0.2.20050329095430.047d6a80@mail.jefsey.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 10:31:14 +0200
To: "Doug Ewell" <dewell@adelphia.net>,
	"LTRU Working Group" <ltru@ietf.org>
From: "JFC (Jefsey) Morfin" <jefsey@jefsey.com>
Subject: Re: [Ltru] Re: Shelf life of data
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At 05:22 29/03/2005, Doug Ewell wrote:
> > We started using alpha-3 by mid-77 and formalized it in oct 1978
> > (Mike Rude); and alpha-2 in 1981. Earlier entries are probably not
> > necessary, unless for archives, historics and experience/testing.
>
>I'm not sure who "we" is in this case, but ISO 3166 has always had
>alpha-2 codes since its debut in 1974, and language tags under RFC 1766
>and 3066 have always used them, never the alpha-3 country codes.

"We" is the world at large. Started in Feb. 1971 as a private service and 
became FCC licensed, ITU sponsored common understanding/agreements by 
monopolies in 77. History is interesting when it can teach for the future. 
I think this is what is happening with Multilingual Internet, of which 
langtags are the very first step.

1. It started using alpha-3 codes for public monopolies, plus US 
International Record Carriers logos (ITT, WUI, etc.). 2 letters codes were 
accepted for refilers (telex operators refilling traffic into the packet 
switch network as did the Internet communities further on). They were just 
cut and pasted for ARPANET ccTLD (RFC 920).

2. IRT languages. First tests of language support were with French, German, 
etc. languages in 76/78 then more seriously with 82/83 with EEC and ESA and 
non Latin with Kokusai Tymshare and KDD. C&W had some effort made in 84/85 
with Chinese test services in HK. Tests with French and German Videotex 
were without problem in 84/86.  Israeli had something in Hebrew at their 
Chief Scientist office in 1985. Arabic was also tested at that time by 
Egyptian PTT. OTE in Athens shown me a rudimentary service, probably in 
1985. EBCDIC code was supported from the very beginning but not permitted 
for a long and abandoned when OSI started being supported.

3. For consistency with these past archives we should include all the past 
codes in the first base, so this is settled once for all. On-Line public 
documents started with NLM Bethesda. Then there were quick development by 
Dialog, Lockheed and a few other large US information services and the 
Diane members in Europe. They were mostly in American, English and French 
(France and Canada).

It is fun, when you stabilize something to be able to support everything 
down to its very roots. But also, it provides more occasions to test the 
way the adopted solution stands table changes.

BTW IRT ISO 3166-3 we will have a copyright problem that has to be 
addressed in the Draft.
jfc


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