nomenclatorial "bickering"

[Geoff Read]

>      I thought the Zoological Code was complex back in 1980 when I had to
> use it, but it seems to be getting worse.

Dear me. And I thought it was getting better! :-) That example [automatic
priority of the higher ranked name] seemed a simplifying addition.

There is also the new maintenance-of-prevailing-usage emphasis (crops up
in more than one article) which is intended to do away with  the date
priority, "I have discovered this obscure old name and I'm going to overturn
the one everybody uses," irritating cases that ended up buried in the
Commission for years - as Ken Kinman experienced. This is especially
appreciated in the case of family names.  Change there is rather pointless
and very inconvenient.


--
  Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>