# iso-codes

https://salsa.debian.org/iso-codes-team/iso-codes

This project provides lists of various ISO standards (e.g. country,

language, language scripts, and currency names) in one place, rather

than repeated in many programs throughout the system.

Currently there are lists of languages and countries embedded in

several different programs, which leads to dozens of lists of

200 languages, translated into more than 90 languages ... not

very efficient.

With this project, we create a single "gettext domain" for every

supported ISO standard which contains the translations of

that domain. It is easy for a programmer to re-use those

translations instead of maintaining their own translation

infrastructure. Moreover, the programmer does not need to follow

changes in the ISO standard and will not work with outdated

information.

To use this translation infrastructure, the programmer just needs

to call `dgettext()` in their program.

Example:

```

dgettext("iso_639-2", "French")

```

will return the translation for "French", depending on the

current locale.

Furthermore, this project provides the ISO standards as JSON files

to be used by other applications as well. All those JSON files

are stored in the directory "/usr/share/iso-codes/json".

# Status of translations

Below you can see the current translation status, with the two most

important gettext domains listed first (countries and languages).

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-3166-1/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-639-2/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

The other gettext domains are also useful, but probably

not as important as the first two.

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-4217/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-3166-2/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-3166-3/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-639-3/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-639-5/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

[![Translation status](https://hosted.weblate.org/widgets/iso-codes/-/iso-15924/287x66-white.png)](https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/iso-codes/?utm_source=widget)

# NEWS

* A new ISO standard has been included, ISO 3166-3. The gettext

  domain is called `iso_3166-3`. Basically, this is a split of the

  old domain `iso_3166` into `iso_3166-1` and `iso_3166-3`, because

  the old domain `iso_3166` contained both standards. However, the

  standard ISO 3166-3 was more or less inaccessible.

* The standard ISO 4217 (currency names) now includes only the

  currently used currencies. Entries of withdrawn currencies are

  no longer included.

* The standard ISO 639-5 now includes only the language families

  which are part of the official standard. The previously

  included languages were not part of the standard and have been

  removed. This reduced the number of language families from

  about 1900 to about 110.

* The XML files are **deprecated** and should not be used for new

  projects. However, they are kept in sync with the JSON data

  for now.

* The gettext domains have been renamed to better match the

  actual ISO number:

  - ISO 639-2: Renamed from `iso_639` to `iso_639-2`

  - ISO 639-3: Renamed from `iso_639_3` to `iso_639-3`

  - ISO 639-5: Renamed from `iso_639_5` to `iso_639-5`

  - ISO 3166-1: Renamed from `iso_3166` to `iso_3166-1`

  - ISO 3166-2: Renamed from `iso_3166_2` to `iso_3166-2`

  All previously used gettext domains are linked to the new

  domain names, so that this transition should be smooth for

  programs using those domain names.

## ISO 639-2

This lists the 2-letter and 3-letter language codes and language

names. The official ISO 639-2 maintenance agency is the Library of

Congress. The gettext domain is "iso_639-2".

<http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/>

## ISO 639-3

This is a further development of ISO 639-2, see above. All codes

of ISO 639-2 are included in ISO 639-3. ISO 639-3 attempts to

provide as complete an enumeration of languages as possible,

including living, extinct, ancient, and constructed languages,

whether major or minor, written or unwritten. The gettext

domain is "iso_639-3". The official ISO 639-3 maintenance agency

is SIL International.

<http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/>

## ISO 639-5

This standard is highly incomplete list of alpha-3 codes

for language families and groups. The official ISO 639-5 maintenance

agency is the Library of Congress. The gettext domain is "iso_639-5".

<http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-5/>

## ISO 3166-1

This lists the 2-letter country code and "short" country name. The

official ISO 3166-1 maintenance agency is ISO. The gettext domain is

"iso_3166-1".

<http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes>

## ISO 3166-2

The ISO 3166 standard includes a "Country Subdivision Code",

giving a code for the names of the principal administrative

subdivisions of the countries coded in ISO 3166. The official

ISO 3166-2 maintenance agency is ISO. The gettext domain is

"iso_3166-2".

<http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes>

## ISO 3166-3

The ISO 3166-3 standard defines codes for country names which

have been removed from ISO 3166-1. The official ISO 3166-3

maintenance agency is ISO. The gettext domain is "iso_3166-3".

<http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes>

## ISO 4217

This lists the currency codes and names. The official ISO 4217

maintenance agency is the Swiss Association for Standardization.

The gettext domain is "iso_4217".

<http://www.currency-iso.org/en/home.html>

## ISO 15924

This lists the language scripts names. The official ISO 15924

maintenance agency is the Unicode Consortium. The gettext

domain is "iso_15924".

<http://unicode.org/iso15924/>

# Tracking updates to the various ISO standards

Below is a list of websites we use to check for updates to the

standards.

ISO 639-2:

<http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_changes.php>

ISO 639-3:

<http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/changes.asp>

ISO 639-5:

<http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-5/changes.php>

ISO 3166-1, ISO 3166-2, and ISO 3166-3:

<http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes>

ISO 4217:

<http://www.currency-iso.org/en/home/tables/table-a1.html>

ISO-15924:

<http://unicode.org/iso15924/codechanges.html>

# Adding or updating translations

The iso-codes project uses the Weblate translation service

as the primary way of managing translations.

You can find more information about this on the website:

<https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/iso-codes/>

You can also send your translation as a bug report against the package

iso-codes to the Debian Bug Tracking System. You can either send an email

or use the tool reportbug. More details are on this website:

<https://bugs.debian.org/>

# Reporting a bug

If you find a bug in iso-codes, there are several ways to contact us.

* Salsa issues

  <https://salsa.debian.org/iso-codes-team/iso-codes/issues>

  This system can be accessed via webbrowser.

* Debian Bug Tracking System

  <https://bugs.debian.org/>

  This system can be accessed via e-mail.

# Developing using pkgconfig

A pkgconfig file has been included to aid developing with this

project. You can detect the prefix where the translations have

been placed using

```

$ pkg-config --variable=prefix iso-codes

/usr

```

You can detect which gettext domains have been installed using

```

$ pkg-config --variable=domains iso-codes

iso_639-2 iso_639-3 iso_639-5 iso_3166-1 iso_3166-2 iso_3166-3 iso_4217 iso_15924

```