The BITEARN  database driver has  been improved in  release 1.5n to  allow for
synonyms on  the 'country'  keyword. It is  now possible to  use 'Select  * in
BITEARN  where  country is  France',  for  example.  This was  implemented  as
follows:
 
- All search  arguments on  the country  keywords are  passed to  the database
  driver for validation before the actual search takes place.
 
- If the  search argument  is one  of the country-id  codes listed  in COUNTRY
  FILE, it is left unchanged.
 
- If it  doesn't match any of  the full country  names in COUNTRY FILE,  it is
  also  left unchanged,  on  the assumption  that the  COUNTRY  FILE might  be
  obsolete and the user shouldn't be prevented from searching stuff on country
  'XYZ' if he so desires.
 
- Otherwise the  first country-id code  whose associated country  name matches
  the search argument is substituted.
 
Hence if I do  a search on 'country is USA', 'US' will  not be substituted for
'USA' since  'USA' is listed  as a valid country-id  in the file.  'country is
Spain' gets turned into 'country is E'.
 
I have  also entered  'US' and  'CA' into the  COUNTRY FILE  so that  they are
recognized as meaning USA and Canada. However, a search on 'Canada' will cause
'CAN' to  be used with  the present version of  the file (which  is consistent
with the  current BITEARN NODES  definitions). If  the entries get  changed, I
have to put the 'CA' entry before 'CAN' in COUNTRY FILE.
 
  Eric