Philippe Verdy <verdy underscore p at wanadoo dot fr> wrote: >> ISO 3166-1 already defines alpha-3 and numeric code elements, as well >> as alpha-2. > > But how to work with the 2 letters limitation when the world wants > more stability in codes (this was an important reason why ISO 639 was > not fully integrated in IETF tags, and why the IETF tags have chosen > the stability by keeping also the codes that hbave been deleted in ISO > 639, but only deprecated in IETF language tags (BCP47).
I assume you're aware of the extent of my involvement in BCP 47, so this is a semi-rhetorical question. If and when ISO 3166/MA manages to use up all of the remaining 336 unassigned code elements -- nearly half of the TOTAL possible code space of 676 two-letter combinations -- the corresponding numeric code elements will be assigned as BCP 47 region subtags instead. > We've already seen the famous reuse before 50 years (do you remember > when CS was reassigned just a few months after it was discarded after > an initial introduction for some months in Serbia-Montenegro?) What actually happened was, 'CS' was withdrawn for Czechoslovakia and then assigned to Serbia and Montenegro. At that time, the waiting period was five years; the 'CS' incident is what resulted in the change to 50 years. > But now let's remembers that parts of ISO 3166 are also included (not > fully) in BCP47 tags that require the stability. IT will prohibit > reassignments by ISO (or if this happens, this will break BCP47 and et > IETF will reject the change and will use another subtag if needed. Again, I'm guessing you already know that I know how BCP 47 works. ISO 3166/MA can recycle alpha-2 code elements 50 years after withdrawal if they feel like it. BCP 47 can't prevent that. That's why BCP 47 has a mechanism to work around that possibility. > So country codes cannot be reassigned (and we can expect many more > merges/splits or changes of regimes in the many troubled areas of the > world. Changes of regimes don't usually result in new 3166 code elements. The same is true for merges (look at DE/DD or YE/YD). New and changed country names usually do. -- Doug Ewell | http://ewellic.org | Thornton, CO 🇺🇸
