Shane Kerr writes:
> Hm... this is an interesting point.
>
> I just checked the ISO 3166 glossary:
> https://www.iso.org/glossary-for-iso-3166.html
>
> And it says:
>
> "User-assigned codes - If users need code elements to represent country
> names not included in ISO 3166-1, the series of letters AA, QM to QZ, XA
> to XZ, and ZZ, and the series AAA to AAZ, QMA to QZZ, XAA to XZZ, and
> ZZA to ZZZ respectively, and the series of numbers 900 to 999 are available.
> NOTE: Please be advised that the above series of codes are not
> universal, those code elements are not compatible between different
> entities."
The glossary is not authoritative, but it is a reformulation of a
note to Section 8.1.3 in the standard (ISO 3166:1,Third edition,
2013-11-05):
"NOTE Users are advised that the above series of codes are
not universals, those code elements are not compatible
between different entities."
>
> So the intention of the ISO at least is that these codes are used by
> users. (I'm not sure what the scary warning means.)
It means what it says. In the context of the stamdard, these are
not garanteed to be unique. The 3166/MA get sometimes requests to
reserve/allocate/assign codes from these blocks to make them unique
and always says no. (There used to be a note somewhere asking to
send the secretary of the 3166/MA information which User Assigned
Code was used and for what, but hardly anybody ever did and when
they did, users expected their particular code to be unique. Therefore
the MA dropped the note and does not keep a record of the User
Assigned Codes).
> Certainly I have
> made heavy use of .Q* and .X* in my own testing, with the assumption
> that these would never be assigned (and yes, there is .TEST but
> sometimes you need more than one one TLD).
Yes, that is the ia perfect legit use use. (Trivia tidbit: The
rumour is that in Argentinia these codes are used to brand mark
cows).
jaap
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