Time Zone Localizations

[Infoman]

Clive,

Actually the numbers stay the same, Russia retains the number for the Soviet
Union and united Germany retained the number for West-Germany. The
perspective here is that of a jurisdictional nature. Even though the
physical territory may change, the jurisdictional entity remains.
East-Germany stopped being a member of the UN. With the break-up of the
Soviet Union, Russia
continued with the same numeric code, others codes were added when parts of
the SU became UN recognized member states ( goes via the Security Council).
The same happened re Ethiopia (& Eritrea), Yugoslavia, etc.

The 3 digit numeric code and the 3-alpha code belong to are under the
control of the UN and maintained by the UN Statistical system. The the
official long and short names of each country are under the control of each
country. However changes in names or names for "new" countries are vetted by
the UN. Normally proposed changes do go through "automatically". Only rarely
does a UN member object (e.g. as is the current case with "Macedonia).

The ISO 3166-1 standard takes this UN originated information and then
adds/manages the 2-alpha codes.

trust that this is of some help - Jake Knoppers

-----Original Message-----
From: Clive D.W. Feather [mailto:clive at demon.net]
Sent: June 11, 2004 7:43 AM
To: Infoman
Cc: Mark Davis; Guy Harris; tz at lecserver.nci.nih.gov
Subject: Re: Time Zone Localizations


Infoman said:
> IN ISO 3166-1, in the 3-digit numeric codes, the 900+-999 range is
available
> for private use. Some of these are already "taken", i.e. in widespread
use.
> I note that banking and financial services (ISO TC68) standardards for
> financial transactions do use the 3-digit numeric code because it is the
> most stable.

The numeric codes serve a different purpose to the alphabetic ones - they
identify physical territory. So when a country changes name and therefore
alpha code, the number stays the same. But when the territory changes
(e.g. absorption of East by West Germany) the number changes even if the
alpha code stays the same.

--
Clive D.W. Feather  | Work:  <clive at demon.net>   | Tel:    +44 20 8495 6138
Internet Expert     | Home:  <clive at davros.org>  | Fax:    +44 870 051 9937
Demon Internet      | WWW: http://www.davros.org | Mobile: +44 7973 377646
Thus plc            |                            |