Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!mti!adrian
From: adrian@mti.mti.com (Adrian McCarthy)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: 1990 in Roman numerals *summary*
Message-ID: <863@mti.mti.com>
Date: 14 Dec 89 17:37:53 GMT
Reply-To: adrian@mti.UUCP (Adrian McCarthy)
Organization: Micro Technology, Anaheim, CA
Lines: 16

Here is a summary of responses from my question of how to represent 1990 in
Roman numerals:

  1.  The Romans themselves didn't use the "subtraction trick" (i.e., 4 was
      IIII not IV).  -- Raymond Chen, Mike Albaugh's Latin teacher/basketball
      coach, and Don Hosek.

  2.  Although nobody could provide a solid reference (such as a style
      manual), the general consensus is that you should only subtract if
      the smaller unit is an order of magnitude smaller than the larger unit
      (i.e., 9 = IX, and 99 = XCIX not IC).
      -- Raymond Chen, Ken Yap, John Shipman, Gerald Edgar, Mike Albaugh

Thus 1990 is MCMXC, and 1999 will be MCMXCIX, and TeX was right (of course :-).

Aid.  (Standard disclaimers).