Editing Videotex (section)

=== France ===

Development of a French teletext-like system began in 1973. A very simple 2-way videotex system called Tictac was also demonstrated in the mid-1970s.  As in the UK, this led on to work to develop a common display standard for videotex and teletext, called [[Antiope (teletext)|Antiope]], which was finalised in 1977.  Antiope had similar capabilities to the UK system for displaying alphanumeric text and chunky "mosaic" character-based block graphics.  A difference however was that while in the UK standard [[control codes]] automatically also occupied one character position on screen, Antiope allowed for "non spacing" control codes.  This gave Antiope slightly more flexibility in the use of colours in mosaic block graphics, and in presenting the accents and diacritics of the French language.

Meanwhile, spurred on by the 1978 [[Simon Nora|Nora]]/[[Alain Minc|Minc]] report, the French government was determined to catch up on a perceived falling behind in its computer and communications facilities. In 1980 it began field trials issuing Antiope-based terminals for free to over 250,000 telephone subscribers in [[Ille-et-Vilaine]] region, where the French [[Centre commun d'études de télévision et télécommunications|CCETT]] research centre was based, for use as telephone directories. The trial was a success, and in 1982 [[Minitel]] was rolled out nationwide.