[Pkg-isocodes-devel] "Tanzania"

[Jack Bates]

On 09/12/14 10:23 PM, Christian PERRIER wrote:
> Quoting Jack Bates (47z8f3 at nottheoilrig.com):
>> On 09/12/14 11:40 AM, Tobias Quathamer wrote:
>>> Am 09.12.2014 um 17:52 schrieb Jack Bates:
>>>> What do you think about adding
>>>> a common_name="Tanzania" attribute to iso_3166.xml?
>>>
>>> Sounds good, thanks for the suggestion. Added.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Also, what do you think about
>> common_name="North Korea" and common_name="South Korea"?
>> I think these names are extremely common:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea
>> Like Tanzania, I've made exceptions for them
>> in code that otherwise relies on iso_3166.xml
>
> I'm not so sure that there should be a movement towards a general use
> of common names when no sensitive context is claiming for them.
>
> Indeed, in the case of Koreas, I suspect that the use of unofficial
> "North Korea" and "South Korea" could be controversial to some
> people. So, my stance on these topics is that we shouldn't use common
> names unless there is a specific request for it, from people involved
> in the relevant countries and bringing a detailed argumentation about
> why they're needed.
>
> In the case of Tanzania, I don't see such need. If the country itself
> has chosent to use a long name as its "short" name, then it is their
> problem, it shouldn't be ours to decide that the short name is not
> short enough.

(I don't think I can contribute anything to discussion
of whether to use common names outside specific contexts.
In my case there was a usability problem
where (some) users couldn't readily distinguish
"Korea, Democratic People's Republic of" from "Korea, Republic of"
It seems likely that it could exist in other contexts,
but I can just as easily imagine contexts where continued use of the
name="Korea, Democratic People's Republic of" or
official_name="Democratic People's Republic of Korea"
attributes, without mentioning "North Korea", is correct ...)