At 13:13 -0400 2000-09-12, Gwillim Law wrote:

I looked in a few handy reference books. In Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition (1997), under "Asia", I found: "Boundaries: ... (4) On W, Red Sea, Isthmus of Suez, ...; chief island Cyprus." Cyprus is not mentioned in the "Europe" article. Rand McNally's Atlas of the World, Millenium Edition (1999) has Cyprus colored in on the political map of Asia, but not of Europe. The National Geographic Atlas of the World and the Encyclopedia Britannica World Atlas both have lists of countries organized by continent. In both of them, Cyprus is listed in Asia, not Europe. The Columbia Encyclopedia's article on Asia says, "The conventional boundary with Europe--which may be said geographically to be a peninsula of the Eurasian land mass--lies approximately along the Ural mts., the Ural river, and the Caspian Sea. Thus defined, Asia, including Ceylon but excluding the islands of Japan, ...". I didn't find any reference books that place Ceylon in Europe.

I note that _all_ of the references cited are US publications. --Alex _______________ Alex LIVINGSTON Macintosh and Lotus Notes Support / Information Technology (IT) Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052 / Australia Facsimile: +61 2 9931-9349 / Telephone: +61 2 9931-9264 Time : UTC+11---[last Mar. Sun.---UTC+10---[last Aug. Sun.---UTC+11--- At end of today, Wednesday, September 13, time since epoch (1-1-1 at 00:00:00) = 730376 days = 1999.70156814 average Gregorian years time until 3rd millennium, 21st century, 201st decade, 2001st year = 109 days = .29843186 average Gregorian years

David Keegel wrote:

] > > For some reason Nicosia has been listed as being in Asia and not in ] > > Europe. Can this please be changed? ] ] I personally don't care whether Cyprus is considered part of Asia or part of ] Europe. However, it might be considered a politically sensitive question, ] since control of the island is currently split between Turkish Cypriots and ] Greek Cypriots. Therefore, I think the tz archive should follow standard ] geographical practice. ]

Let me add another one. The United Nations' Statistical Division lists Cyprus as being part of Western Asia (like Turkey), not Southern Europe (like Greece). Reference: http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49regin.htm

Okay, fair enough. Cyprus is the most western island of Asia and not part of Europe in 'standard' terminology. But I believe the tzdata actually redundantly lists some entries. If I recall, the US territories in the Pacific (Guam?, American Samoa?) are listed in two files but with the same IDs. Am I wrong, or was this an old, temporary or non-standard habit that is no longer used? If there are redundant entries for those Pacific islands which are supported, maybe some islands 'south east' of Europe and 'west' of Asia could be treated the same way and be listed twice. Possibly this technique causes other complications. Anyone have any thoughts? -Paul -- Myriad Genetics: http://www.myriad.com/ Java FAQ: http://www.afu.com/javafaq.html (Section 9, Computer Dating)