4 ms·
Because in the US, where the company was founded, the states have 2 letter abbreviations in common language. I wish people could use the ISO: https://en.wikiped
by verelo 6y ago
Because in the US, where the company was founded, the states have 2 letter abbreviations in common language. I wish people could use the ISO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:AU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:AU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:US
- endgame 6y agoWe had a chat about that on HN just the other day. It's cheaper to hack something together based on the world around you than it is to pay ISO a bucket of money to read one standard.
- bregma 6y agoBut it turns out most people have been doing it all wrong since forever. [0] [0] https://www.iso.org/standard/73224.html https://www.iso.org/standard/73224.html
- walrus01 6y agoCanadian provinces and territories also use standard 2 letter abbreviations, which makes things work better with the US postal and addressing system. BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC, etc.
- squiggleblaz 6y agoIf you check the link you linked, you'll see that until 2004 the codes were indeed NS for NSW, VI for Vic, TS for Tas and QL for Qld. If you bought the standard for an arm and a leg in 2003, why would you buy the update for two arms and three legs in 2004? It's not like there's been any new states in Australia ever.
- verelo 6y agoInteresting. I only first used these ISO labels around 2011, so the two letter versions for Australia never hit me. However, having grown up in NSW, i can attest that it’s never been a two letter abbreviation in common language. Likely the standard was mass produced and “corrected” for ambiguity later, that’s my guess anyway.