On Tue, Apr 20, 2004 at 08:40:34PM +0000, Chuan-kai Lin wrote: [...] > A more interesting question would be asking them if they consider the > country names listed in ISO 3166 also part of the standard. If they > respond that the country names are only used to make it clear to which > country/region/whatever each of the alpha-2 codes refer, then the > original standard compliance bug Christian bug filed is bogus, and we > naturally revert to the original status quo of calling Taiwan Taiwan. > > If they respond that the country names are also part of the standard and > changing them violates ISO 3166, they should offer an explanation on how > ISO (or UN for that matter) could act as an authoritative source of > country names given that: (1) the names do not originate from either ISO > or UN, and (2) countries decide their own names without seeking (or > needing) permission from ISO or UN. In other words, they need to come > up with a reasonable explanation on when and how did international > organizations (ISO or UN) get into the business of naming countries.
One simply has to realize that country names in English and French are written using imaginary en_UN and fr_UN locales, and can be translated to any language (including common English and French, for those who do not speak *_UN variants). Denis -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
