From: sl@wimsey.bc.ca (Stuart Lynne)
Subject: Re: locality abbreviations 
Organization: Wimsey Information Services
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 21:48:06 GMT

In article <C0CK0H.6A8@newsflash.concordia.ca> anne@maxwell.concordia.ca (Anne Bennett) writes:
>eah@xenitec.on.ca (Ed Hew) writes:
>> 
>> that, then we (the domain committee) will have to create our own
>> "official" abbreviation list, within the CA Registrar's scope of
>
>I don't agree.  There are squillions (pardon the technical term :-) of
>municipalities in Canada, and it would probably be very difficult to come
>up with a reasonable set of abbreviations.  Doing so would be *way*
>beyond the domain committee's resources, I think.

RFC1386 addresses this. Basically allowing either the full name, the
Western Union Abbreviation or local abbreviations with some limitations.

>   2.2  City Codes or Locality Names
>
>   Cities may be named (designated) by their full name (spelled out with
>   hyphens replacing spaces (e.g., Los-Angeles or New-York)), or by a
>   city code.  The first choice is the full city name, the second choice
>   is the city codes from Western Union's "City Mnemonics" list, and a
>   third choice is a code for your city chosen by the applicant.
>   However, it is very desirable that all users in the same city use the
>   same designator for the city.
>
>   Abbreviated city names are a good idea, particularly when the city
>   name is long, as there is much to type already.  One of the problems
>   is that the city codes in the Western Union City Mnemonics list are
>   sometimes not very good abbreviations.  Users sometimes tend to
>   prefer abbreviations that are commonly used already from that region.
>   Such as SF for San Francisco, MPK for Menlo Park.
>
>   Exceptions have been made in the abbreviations, even though this
>   causes extra work to keep track of these abbreviations.  One
>   abbreviation for one city.  Applicants are told what codes are
>   currently in use, however, if a city code is not used yet, and they
>   would prefer to use a different code that is more common among the
>   natives, then the new code is allowed.  However, once it's
>   registered, then everyone else who registers in that city will have
>   to use that code or spell out the full city name.
>
>   Some applicants have tried to get a copy of the Western Union City
>   Mnemonics code list but it is no longer available from Western Union.
>   However, we do have a copy but it is not online. If you are
>   requesting an abbreviated city code please let us know and we will
>   gladly look it up for you.

>I also favour the use of easy-to-remember, as opposed to easy-to-type,
>names.  I don't think long domain names will be a problem in practice;
>it's easy enough to set up a personal mail alias list anyway.  I say
>just use the whole city name, and have done with it.

>-- 
>Ms. Anne Bennett          anne@maxwell.concordia.ca           (514) 848-7606
>Computing Services C-1012, Concordia University, Montreal QC, Canada H3G 1M8
>(Administrator for Concordia University mail relay, news transfer, and DNS) 

To be reached at some point in the future as:

	anne@maxwell.concordia.montreal.qc.ca

-- 
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