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[Doug Ewell]

I know I'll regret this...

Philippe Verdy <verdy underscore p at wanadoo dot fr> wrote:

> Sometime in a future, two letters will not be enough even in ISO
> 3166-1, if countries continue to split/merge (this does not happen
> frequently but is occurs every few years; and it will not be possible
> to reuse old codes that are maintained for a long period).

ISO 3166-1 already defines alpha-3 and numeric code elements, as well as
alpha-2.

ISO 3166/MA has added approximately one code element per year on average
since the breakup of the Soviet Union. There are approximately 336
unassigned alpha-2 code elements, and if any of the assigned ones is
withdrawn, it can be recycled in 50 years.

> May be then we'll have ISO 3166-1 codes using digits (such as "A1" or
> "1A"), but this will cause some problems to map them to IETF ccTLD
> codes (within the DNS root registry).

Adapting to this challenge, if and when it arises, should be child's
play for the DNS, which has recently introduced TLDs like
".சிங்கப்பூர்" (or ".xn--clchc0ea0b2g2a9gcd" if
one prefers).

> As well the UN M.49 numeric codes will get full if it continues with
> its current allocation scheme (using ranges of numbers by continental
> regions). Or the other solution will be to extend the set of allowed
> letters.

UN M.49 numeric code elements (equivalent to ISO 3166-1) are assigned
alphabetically by English country name, or as close as possible, with
some exceptions related to historical names. There are no allocations by
geographical region.

--
Doug Ewell | http://ewellic.org | Thornton, CO ����