Proposal to reserve ISO 3166-1 code elements

Addison Phillips addison at yahoo-inc.com
Fri Apr 14 02:03:19 CEST 2006


-1

I disagree with reserving most of these old codes for exactly the same reason: most of the withdrawn codes were junk (Antarctic territories feature prominently) and don't represent codes that describe language variation. Furthermore, all of the earlier list were withdrawn before there was ever an RFC 1766 and thus have never been valid in language tags. At least a case can be made for them never being valid.

I support reserving 'DD' and 'YD', but the others should be freely recycled if necessary, as they can still go into the language registry with no problem. After all, the whole point of designating a "Date A" in the first place was so that as much of the ISO 3166 code space would be open for recycling as possible.

Addison

Addison Phillips
Internationalization Architect - Yahoo! Inc.

Internationalization is an architecture.
It is not a feature. 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no [mailto:ietf-languages-
> bounces at alvestrand.no] On Behalf Of McDonald, Ira
> Sent: 2006年4月13日 15:40
> To: 'Mark Davis'; Doug Ewell
> Cc: ietf-languages at iana.org; Debbie Garside
> Subject: RE: Proposal to reserve ISO 3166-1 code elements
> 
> +1
> 
> I agree with Doug's rationale for protecting these codes
> from reassignment.  And I agree with Doug's rationale to
> avoid the unpleasant use of UN numeric codes that might
> be forced on the Language Subtag Registry by our rules.
> 
> Cheers,
> - Ira
> 
> Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
> Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
> PO Box 221  Grand Marais, MI  49839
> phone: +1-906-494-2434
> email: imcdonald at sharplabs.com
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no
> > [mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no]On Behalf Of Mark Davis
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 10:42 AM
> > To: Doug Ewell
> > Cc: ietf-languages at iana.org; Debbie Garside
> > Subject: Re: Proposal to reserve ISO 3166-1 code elements
> >
> >
> > I absolutely agree that these code elements should be reserved by the
> > ISO 3166 MA and never reused for different entities.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > Doug Ewell wrote:
> > > This post deals with a proposal to classify 15 unassigned
> > ISO 3166-1
> > > code elements as "reserved."  Please don't dismiss this subject as
> > > "off-topic" for ietf-languages until you have read the entire post.
> > >
> > > In a message to ietf-languages on April 3, I listed 15
> > formerly used
> > > code elements from ISO 3166-1 that are classified not as
> > > "transitionally reserved" or otherwise "reserved," but as
> > > "unassigned."  These 15 code elements are summarized as follows:
> > >
> > > DD   German Democratic Republic (withdrawn 1990)
> > > YD   Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of (withdrawn 1990)
> > > 13 others:  BQ, CT, FQ, HV, JT, MI, NH, NQ, PC, PU, PZ, VD, WK
> > > (withdrawn 1977 through 1986)
> > >
> > > Note that the code elements DD and YD, having been withdrawn after
> > > 1988 -- "Date A" for purposes of the Language Subtag
> > Registry -- are
> > > included in the Registry as deprecated region subtags.
> > >
> > > Since then, I have had a chance to read an actual copy of
> > ISO 3166-3,
> > > which shows that the alpha-4 code elements in that standard
> > represent
> > > not only "formerly used names of countries" (Section 1) but also
> > > formerly used code elements.
> > >
> > > Section 5.2 states that the ISO 3166-3 code list includes "... the
> > > formerly used country names together with their obsolescent alpha-2
> > > code elements, obsolescent alpha-3 code elements, obsolescent
> > > numeric-3 code elements (where relevant), [and] the period (years)
> > > during which these were valid...."
> > >
> > > This demonstrates that the 15 code elements in the list above, now
> > > present as the first part of ISO 3166-3 code elements, were
> > officially
> > > assigned and valid in ISO 3166 and/or 3166-1 for a clearly defined
> > > period of time.  Based on current practice within ISO
> > 3166/MA -- see
> > > TP, YU, and ZR in recent times -- these 15 code elements should be
> > > classified as "transitionally reserved" to prevent, or at least
> > > discourage, their reassignment to other country names.
> > >
> > > This issue affects the ietf-languages list because of the
> > presence of
> > > DD and YD.  If the MA were to assign either of these code
> > elements to
> > > a new country name, the code element could not be used in
> > the Language
> > > Subtag Registry because of its existing meaning.  According
> > to Section
> > > 3.4, item 10 of RFC 3066bis, it would be necessary to use
> > the UN M.49
> > > numeric code element as a subtag, something we in LTRU
> > tried hard to
> > > avoid doing.  Item 11 refers to the M.49 codes as "the
> > value of last
> > > resort in cases where ISO 3166 reassigns a deprecated value in the
> > > registry," but clearly it is desirable to avoid this "last resort"
> > > situation.
> > >
> > > A similar situation could potentially apply to other users of ISO
> > > 3166-1, especially if they also depend on certain withdrawn code
> > > elements to preserve stability, as we do.
> > >
> > > Debbie Garside and I have talked about this issue and agree
> > that the
> > > MA should be asked to reserve these code elements,
> > especially DD and
> > > YD, but we would like to get input (and hopefully support) from
> > > ietf-languages first.  Please send any comments you may have to the
> > > list, or to Debbie or me, in the next few days before we
> > submit this
> > > to the MA.  If you reply to the list, please try to keep the scope
> > > focused on the impact on the Language Subtag Registry.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Doug Ewell
> > > Fullerton, California, USA
> > > http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
> > >
> > > --
> > > Debbie Garside
> > > Managing Director
> > >
> > > ICT Marketing Limited
> > > Corner House
> > > Barn Street
> > > Haverfordwest
> > > Pembrokeshire SA61 1BW
> > > Wales UK
> > >
> > > Tel: 0044 (0)1437 766441
> > > Web: www.ictmarketing.co.uk
> > >
> > >
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