And what about the paper documentation? --Zundark, 2001 Nov 17
Country codes were invented for use in computer data processing. Their primary use is for computer purposes (thats why it is a FIPS -- Federal Information Processing Standard). I doubt much paper documentation uses them. But even if it did, all they'd need is an internal style guide or something that said "we use the following country codes from ISO 3166 for all new documents:... some documentation produced before the changeover uses the obsolete FIPS country codes, which are listed below:". Problem solved -- SJK
Even if all the data is in electronic format, there is much more to be done than just writing a 5-minute program. And converting everything would achieve nothing anyway, since FIPS codes serve their purpose as well as, or better than, ISO codes would. --Zundark, 2001 Nov 17
Please consider routing out ths change in all of the thousands of computer programs, hundreds of thousands/millions of documents, etc. used the the US government.