On 27 Feb 2002, at 14:42, John Cowan wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > There is a point of view that says that *all* such identifiers (for
> > countries, languages, etc.) should just be randomly generated strings for the
> > kind of reasons mentioned. (Not that I'm arguing for that.)
>
> It is often suggested that meaningless identifiers are more stable
> than Real World names. I would point out that while no meaningless
> identifier has been in use for as much as two centuries, the
> name "Roma" (of the city, not the people) has had a stable
> referent for the last 2755 years.
Of course, actually "Roma" *is* a meaningless identifier ... just like any
other word or symbol.
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