SC22/WG20 N638

From: 10646er@sesame.demon.co.uk (John Clews)

Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 1999 9:58 AM

To: SC22WG20@dkuug.dk

Subject:

For information

ISO 3166 is in three parts, although part 3 only includes a list of

superseded codes. ISO 3166-2 (Codes for the representation of names of

countries and their subdivisions, part 2 - Country subdivision code)

was published by ISO Central Secretariat only on 1998-12-15.

As this includes information on quite a number of cultural elements,

for quite a number of countries, and languages (European and

non-European), including fallback characters, sorting orders in

specific languages, transliteration systems, country codes and

language codes, and may in fact be used by some as a handy source of

information on cultural elements, in my view it would be useful for

members of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG20 to look at this in advance of the

next meeting of JTC1/SC22/WG20, and possibly even to include

reference to this at part of the next meeting of JTC1/SC22/WG20 in

Philadelphia (May 1999).

It may have some relevance to ISO/IEC FCD 14652 and ISO/IEC 15897,

even if it may only involved cross-referencing standards in

Normative references.

ISO 3166-2 includes new codes for administrative units, and in

addition also uses pre-existing codes for countries (from ISO 3166-1)

languages (from ISO 639-1, and also lists transliteration systems

that have been used for certain entries, and also national ordering

practices for certain languages which are used in certain countries.

Best regards

John Clews

--

John Clews, SESAME Computer Projects, 8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG

Email: European@sesame.demon.co.uk; telephone: +44 (0) 1423 888 432

Committee Chair: ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages

Committee Member: CEN/TC304: European Localization Requirements

Committee Member: ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG20: Internationalization

Committee Member: ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC2: Coded Character Sets

Committee Member: Foundation for Endangered Languages