A PURELY FRENCH SOLUTION TO THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM
     
                        Paris, Tuesday, 1st of April 1997
     
     The French Ministry of Informatics (MOI) today announced that they 
     have determined that French computer systems will not be affected by 
     the year 2000 problem.  An extensive series of tests have been run on 
     a wide range of applications within the country and on no system has a 
     Y2K problem been apparent.
     
     A spokesman put this good fortune down to a side-effect of the French 
     number system.  In this system the number eighty is represented by the 
     composite "quatre vingts" -- literally "four twenties."  French 
     computer systems represent the "quatre" as a single digit and will 
     harmlessly roll over to "cinq vingts" or "five twenties" while the 
     rest of the world collapses.  Thus, "quatre vingts dix neuf" will 
     increment to "cinq vingts."
     
     French speaking areas of Belgium and Switzerland are bemused by these
     developments, because they still use the older "septant, octant, 
     nonant" system for 70, 80, and 90.  The Belgian government is thought 
     to be considering an urgent change in the language.  This would 
     provide a major boost for the less prosperous French speaking part of 
     the country when computer systems are relocated to French speaking 
     communes.
     
     Microsoft has announced that it will use similar techniques to 
     guarantee the PCs will not suffer from such problems, by launching a 
     new version of their operating system.  "Windows ninety ten" is 
     expected to be available in the year 2002.
     
     
     
     Excerpt From:
                          TESTING TECHNIQUES NEWSLETTER
                             Software Research, Inc.
                                 625 Third Street
                        San Francisco, CA  94107-1997  USA