Bug#229325: country/region should be used

[Wang WenRui <wangwr@ustc.edu>]

Around 18 o'clock on 17 Mar, Christian Perrier wrote:
> Quoting Wang WenRui (wangwr@ustc.edu):
> 
> I'll try to have a look at ISO-3166 terminology. Using "region" may
> also be confusing because we will get people asking for Rhein-Westfalen
> or "Nord-Pas de Calais"...or (ultra high provocation) Tibet.
Well, the ISO-3166 _is_ "country or area & region codes" according to UN[1],
it is a "coding standard for coding the names of countries and dependent
areas" according to Wikipedia[2]. Note that from iso.org[3]: the country
names used in ISO 3166-1 are all from United Nations sources. Using
these country names officially notified by the countries to the UN
Secretary General helps in keeping ISO 3166-1 politically neutral and
thus acceptable to as many users as possible.

Using "country code" _for short_ may be okay in some occasions, But not
fittable in a formal installer of the best GNU/Linux distribution, when
users "choose a country" from a list with
"
   China
   Hong Kong
   Taiwan
"
listed.


I'm not debating the political issues, but wishing the coming sarge
installer "acceptable to as many users as possible", especially to tens
of thousands GNU/Linux users in China.


[1] http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49alpha.htm
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166
[3] http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/04background-on-iso-3166/iso3166-and-the-UN.html
> 
> I think the name is "country or territory" or something like this.
> 
> But, well, in 99% of cases, the name "country" is appropriate. Maybe
> ask for removal of Hong-Kong and Macau from ISO-3166....:-)
> 
>