Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 23:58:24 -0600 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Jesper_N=F8rgaard?= <jnorgard@prodigy.net.mx>
I have noticed that some sources insist that there was a name change of East Timor to (the more portuguese correct) Timor Leste or Timor-Leste.
I noticed that too. This doesn't affect the tz database proper; just iso3166.tab, which contains unofficial but common English names for countries, e.g. "Libya" rather than "Libyan Arab Jamahiriya". In English, the name "East Timor" is still far more common than "Timor-Leste", so I don't think iso3166.tab needs to change yet. A tougher example of the problem is "Cote d'Ivoire", which is just barely more common than "Ivory Coast" in English (according to Google, anyway). My daily newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, had used "Cote d'Ivoire" for several years, but has now switched back to "Ivory Coast". If this turns into a wider trend, at some point I suppose the tz database should switch to the name "Ivory Coast" in iso3166.tab. Something else that will affect both iso3166.tab and zone.tab is the renaming of Yugoslavia to Serbia & Montenegro, which will probably get them a new country code to replace YU; see <http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/01whats-new/2003-02-06 _statement_yu.html>.