=pod

=head1 NAME

Locale::Codes::Changes - details important changes after 2.07

=head1 3.10

=over 4

=item B<Changed XXX_code2code behavior slightly>

In previous versions, passing in the same code set for both code set
arguments would automatically return undef. For example:

   country_code2code('bo',LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2,LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);
      => undef

This doesn't seem like reasonable behavior, so it has been changed
to allow the same code set:

   country_code2code('bo',LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2,LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);
      => 'bo'

Note that if an invalid code is passed in, undef will still be
returned:

   country_code2code('bol',LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2,LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);
      => undef

=item B<Added many semi-private routines>

Previous versions had only two semi-private routines: rename_country
and alias_code which had the ability to modify the internal data in
a couple very limited ways. It was requested (in an anonymous posting
by someone named Steve and also by Steve Hay) that better support
for modifying internal data, so a full set of routines were added.

The full set of routines includes:

   rename_country
   rename_language
   rename_currency
   rename_script

   add_country
   add_language
   add_currency
   add_script

   delete_country
   delete_language
   delete_currency
   delete_script

   add_country_alias
   add_language_alias
   add_currency_alias
   add_script_alias

   delete_country_alias
   delete_language_alias
   delete_currency_alias
   delete_script_alias

   rename_country_code
   rename_language_code
   rename_currency_code
   rename_script_code

   add_country_code_alias
   add_language_code_alias
   add_currency_code_alias
   add_script_code_alias

   delete_country_code_alias
   delete_language_code_alias
   delete_currency_code_alias
   delete_script_code_alias

=back

=head1 3.00

=over 4

=item B<New maintainer>

From 1997 to 2004, Locale::Codes was maintained by Neil
Bowers. Unfortunately, no updates were made from June 2004 to January
2010. During that time, a number of changes have been made to the
standards since then, so the data included was out-of-date.

I contacted Neil to get his permission to assume maintenance of
the module, and he kindly agreed.

=item B<All codes are generated from standards>

All of the values returned by the various functions are now values
directly from the standards. This means that the values returned in
the 2.xx series are not necessarily the same as the values returned
here.

As an example, the ISO 3166 standard which lists country codes refers
to the country associated with the code "bo" as "Bolivia,
Plurinational State of", so that is what is returned. In the 2.xx
series, "Bolivia" was returned.  Also, the country names vary from one
standard to another. So the code "bol" which is maintained by the
United Nations returns the name of the country as "Bolivia
(Plurinational State of)". Some common aliases have been added, so you
can still request a code associated with a county name "Bolivia".

Since the data comes from the standards, some "incorrect" values are
no longer supported. For example, 2.07 treated "Zaire" as an alias for
"Congo", but the country changed it's name, and "Zaire" is not in the
standard, so it has been dropped in 3.00.

=item B<Added several code sets from standards>

I've added the following code sets:

   FIPS 10 country codes
   Alpha-3 and Term language codes
   Numeric currency codes

=item B<Locale::Script changed>

In 2.xx, Locale::Script assigned scripts to country codes, which is NOT
how it is done currently in the standards. It appears that an older version
of ISO 15924 did this, but I haven't found an old version to confirm
that, and in any case, that is not the case in the current standards.

As a result, the Locale::Script module is completely incompatible with
the 2.xx version with respect to the types of codes it supports. None of
the old codes will work.

=item B<Added missing functions>

I've added in some functions which were "missing" previously (since there was
only one set of codes supported, the code2code functions didn't apply):

   language_code2code
   currency_code2code

so the interfaces for each type of codes are consistent.

=item B<Dropped support for _alias_code>

In Locale::Country, _alias_code was an allowed, but deprecated function
which was documented to be supported in the 2.xx series. I've removed it.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

Locale::Codes

=head1 AUTHOR

See Locale::Codes for full author history.

Currently maintained by Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org).

=head1 COPYRIGHT

   Copyright (c) 2010-2010 Sullivan Beck

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut
