--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Meynell
<kevin@m...> wrote:
>
> >for i dont think uk is proper iso for anything
>
> This is a difficult one. The ISO 3166-1 standard requires that
alpha codes
> reflect a unique component of the country name, which means
that prefixes
> such as 'Kingdom' or 'Republic' are generally not permitted. As
a result
> 'GB' was chosen, although it rather confusingly stands for
'Great Britain
> and Northern Ireland'.
>
> However, it's also possible for countries to ask for certain
codes to be
> included in the ISO 3166 reserved list which means they can't
be allocated
> to someone else. The UK requested that a whole host of
codes be reserved
> (mostly for its overseas territories), but this included 'UK'.
France
> (mainland), Spain (Ceuta/Melilla and the Canary Islands) and
Finland (Åland
> Islands) did something similar.
>
> The UK code was never officially used until the Internet came
along, when
> for some reason, IANA (the US government agency that
delegates top-level
> domains) decided to delegate .uk instead of .gb (.gb was
actually delegated
> as well, but never used). The retrospective explanation was
that IANA did
> not adopt ISO 3166-1 until after .uk was delegated, but this
does not
> explain why they subsequently delegated .ac (Ascension), .gg
(Guernsey),
> .je (Jersey) and .im (Isle of Man) which were and still are only
reserved
> codes. In other words, it was probably a mistake made by the
US Government.
>
> Thanks to the Internet, most people now seem to use 'UK' as
the country
> code when referring to Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but
this is only
> a very recent phenomena and is technically incorrect. However,
I personally
> feel it makes things clearer as I don't know of any other 'United
Kingdoms'
> in the same way that I don't know of any other 'United States'
(although I
> stand to be corrected).
>
> The usual apologies for being slightly off-topic, but hopefully it
> clarifies Mike's point.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kevin Meynell
thanx pal
& no apologies are ever needed imo
for talking about anything one likes really
especially while the live trypointing action has been so quiet
since i believe our only actual mandate is for enjoyment anyway
which is in fact greatly enhanced by all your participation &
offerings
i also feel our supposedly offtopic interests only compliment our
already offpoint interests
which all together also clearly enhance our most focal point
of multipoint pursuit
& particularly about this elaborate yet perfectly natural iso based
shorthand of ours
it may seem to be the least & remotest of all our marginalia
but still is for me a most poignant part of the whole experience
so i for one am multiglad you have elucidated all of this so nicely