Mandarin Chinese, Simplified Script

[Michael Everson]

At 00:20 +0100 2005-06-16, Debbie Garside wrote:
>ISO 639-3 was devised to provide a comprehensive set of identifiers for all
>languages for use in a wide range of applications, including linguistics
>(already covered by 639-1), lexicography (already covered by 639-2
>terminology, which was also the original purpose of 639-1) and
>internationalisation of information systems.

Library tagging was a primary motivator for 639-2, which took on the MARC tags.

>I do not think it is a good idea to add a special purpose ID for something
>that is not a language...

The library community has identified a need for such a tag.

>it MAY open the flood gates for others... turning
>639 into something other than a list of comprehensive identifiers for
>languages.

Sorry, that's not good enough. Name of the others you think would be 
problematic, please.
-- 
Michael Everson * * Everson Typography *  * http://www.evertype.com