9 ms·

Stephen E. Wilhite has died

98 points by Shared404 5y ago

brtkdotse 5y ago
Oh no, how sad. The jraphics interchange format shaped internet culture as it exists today.
- xenomachina 5y ago
  It isn't uncommon for letters in an acronym to be pronounced differently from they are in the words they originated in. eg: laser, scuba, and NASA aren't pronounced "lah-seer", "scuh-bah", "nay-sah".
  - qwertox 5y ago
    It's not like GIF/JIF is pronounced "G I F". Like "Laser" isn't pronounced "L A S E R".
    - khazhoux 5y ago
      His point wasn't about acronyms. The A is laser is for amplification -- which is pronounced with short A. As the U in scuba is for underwater, yet scuba rhymes with tuna instead of tundra.
      - InitialLastName 5y ago
        The "S" in laser is for "stimulated" but nobody pronounces it to rhyme with "bracer".
  - bigDinosaur 5y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if certain accents result in exactly the sounds you described. Good point regardless though.
zote 5y ago
His favorite jif [0] https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23338558/21_baby_custom1.gif https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23338558/2... [0]
- m463 5y ago
  Haven't seen the dancing baby in a while...
Daneel_ 5y ago
On the GIF/JIF debate: Every word (except gin) that starts with G, then a vowel, then an F, is pronounced with a hard G. For example: Gaffe. Gift. Guff. Guffaw. Most one-syllable words that start with G have a hard G (not an exhaustive list): Gab. Gad. Gag. Gal. Gam. Gap. Gas. Gay. Get. Gig. Gill. Gimp. Gird. Girl. Git! Give. Go. Goal. Gob. God. Gone. Gore. Got. Guide. Guild. Guilt. Gull. Gulp. Gum. Gun. Gust. Gut. Guy. The word "gift" is the closest word to GIF, and it has a hard G. To pronounce GIF, just say "gift" without the "t".
- cafard 5y ago
  An argument of pure genius!
- jwiz 5y ago
  The thing is, he named it. So he gets to say how it is spelled and how it is pronounced. You don't call the Spanish exchange student "Gee-Suss", you call him "Hey-soos", because it's a name.
  - zzleeper 5y ago
    Nah, once it's out there people can do whatever they want with it, in the same way that once "xerox" became a common word, it wouldn't matter if Xerox Corp. came and said "hey btw it's pronounced as ZEROZ".
    - jwiz 5y ago
      "I don't care what you say your name is, I seen how you spells it, yer Gee-suss."
      - necovek 5y ago
        Except that GIF is not a personal name, and all those meme GIFs won't be mad if we call them "jifs" or "gifs". Names for things get lives of their own. Similarly, I don't think it merits looking at similar words for the "proper" pronounciation. If anything, it makes sense to look at expanded acronym (Graphics Interchange Format) which still points at the hard G (unless it's Jraphics Interchange Format :)). But hearing it from whoever coined the term is definitely similarly applicable. Still, I would reiterate, names for things that get wide adoption get their own lives, and we'd face an uphill battle to stop people from using them how they want. As long as we can understand each other, we are golden. And when we can't, it's not that hard to get back on the same page.
sedatk 5y ago
GIF could be the oldest file format standard that's remained popular and yet unchanged. I wrote about it here: https://twitter.com/esesci/status/1506776119441170432 https://twitter.com/esesci/status/1506776119441170432
- ChrisLomont 5y ago
  Besides ASCII text files.... TAR files from 1970s? ROFF from the 1960s is still used to create and maintain Unix man pages for all flavors of Unix. MIDI from 1983 is older than GIF.... CSV dates from 1972?
  - sedatk 5y ago
    TAR & ROFF have been through changes, GNU variants/extensions etc. MIDI and CSV too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values#History GIF89a has been exactly the same since 1989. Plaintext obviously is the only exception, and I'd already emphasized that in my tweet.
    - ChrisLomont 5y ago
      GIF89a left some things undefined (larger than 256 color palettes, timing 0 frames, partial frames, etc), so while the text of 89a is fixed, modern GIF decoders handle s superset of GIF files, just like modern CSV files. Also GIF89a supported embedded text to be drawn, which is not implemented in any modern decoder I am aware of. Web browsers certainly don't support it. So GIF89a is not technically still in use - we're using a more recent, less standardized flavor. If I recall, there are other things like this related to modern GIF versus old GIF89a gifs - I ran into a lot of this working on hiding information in GIF file encoding choices (not in the images or file, but simply in choices made by the encoder). Then I scanned zillions of online GIFs to see if someone else had done this, and kept finding weird edge cases in GIF89a. I think there are also many currently used GIF extension blocks that are in use that were not in the GIF89a spec. I'll see if I can find a list and dates they appeared (remember, GIF89a allowed anyone to add extensions to the format, and many companies did). MIDI is one type of extension block that was once embedded in GIFs by some vendors. PCM audio is another block that appears in some GIFs (so would these not count as GIF format being modified later?) So even GIF89a is not exactly the same :) MIDI, v1.0, still works and reads just fine. And it's still widely used (likely the most common flavor of MIDI in use). Current readers read ancient CVS files just fine, so there are modern behaviors, but the original file format is still also in use. The tar format in use was made a POSIX standard in 1988, older than GIF89a. The extended formats do not have .tar extensions. TROFF seems to use the exact same file format it did in 1973: https://troff.org/history.html https://troff.org/history.html. The extensions you mention are making it have different output formats, ore making a new version to process the same file format but with code under different legal provenance.
zzleeper 5y ago
In case anyone knows, was this related to antivaxxing? With three doses, mortality rate is pretty low now.
- veltas 5y ago
  Unfortunately I know people that have died fully dosed, from COVID. The mortality rate has always been "low" but it's higher among very elderly, and especially among men. I think it's bad taste to start speculating if someone dies from COVID whether they were part of some kind of ideological group that put themselves more at risk, he's actually part of a group that is just inherently more at risk.
robbiet480 5y ago
He’s with Jod now
- mihaic 5y ago
  Thank you, I think you've won the argument.
veltas 5y ago
I think the inventor of GIF deserves a black bar.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  Methinks HN should always include a brief who/why summary in their death-notice headlines - as much as I'd like to think we all already know who early leaders in tech are by-name, I'll admit the low-information "Stephen E. Wilhite has died" headline passed me by and while skimming HN I misread it as "Stephen Wile E. Coyote has died" and didn't care to click further. ...it wasn't until hours later when I was bored and idly reading everything that I saw that I earlier misread the title and learned the CompuServ/GIF connection in the HN comments.
pseudolus 5y ago
NPR story with more details: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088410133/gif-creator-dead-steve-wilhite-kathaleen-wife-interview https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088410133/gif-creator-dead-s...
hownottowrite 5y ago
I started at CompuServe in 1990. I met Steve a couple years later when I interviewed to join his team. I didn’t make the cut and I thought he was a bit of a jerk during the interview. Turns out I was the jerk and Steve was actually being really kind to a kid who wasn’t even close to being ready for that level. Anyway, what I can say is that Steve was a lot more than GIF. In fact, back then, no one really thought too much about it, but they thought a lot about Steve. George Jones, another CompuServe alum, penned this a few years back. I think it’s a nice summary. https://web.archive.org/web/20220129204133/http://curious.galthub.com/blog/steve/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220129204133/http://curious.ga...
mrtweetyhack 5y ago

98 points by Shared404 5y ago

brtkdotse 5y ago

Oh no, how sad. The jraphics interchange format shaped internet culture as it exists today.

xenomachina 5y ago
It isn't uncommon for letters in an acronym to be pronounced differently from they are in the words they originated in. eg: laser, scuba, and NASA aren't pronounced "lah-seer", "scuh-bah", "nay-sah".
- qwertox 5y ago
  It's not like GIF/JIF is pronounced "G I F". Like "Laser" isn't pronounced "L A S E R".
  - khazhoux 5y ago
    His point wasn't about acronyms. The A is laser is for amplification -- which is pronounced with short A. As the U in scuba is for underwater, yet scuba rhymes with tuna instead of tundra.
    - InitialLastName 5y ago
      The "S" in laser is for "stimulated" but nobody pronounces it to rhyme with "bracer".
- bigDinosaur 5y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if certain accents result in exactly the sounds you described. Good point regardless though.

zote 5y ago

His favorite jif [0] https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23338558/21_baby_custom1.gif https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23338558/2... [0]

m463 5y ago
Haven't seen the dancing baby in a while...

Daneel_ 5y ago

On the GIF/JIF debate: Every word (except gin) that starts with G, then a vowel, then an F, is pronounced with a hard G. For example: Gaffe. Gift. Guff. Guffaw. Most one-syllable words that start with G have a hard G (not an exhaustive list): Gab. Gad. Gag. Gal. Gam. Gap. Gas. Gay. Get. Gig. Gill. Gimp. Gird. Girl. Git! Give. Go. Goal. Gob. God. Gone. Gore. Got. Guide. Guild. Guilt. Gull. Gulp. Gum. Gun. Gust. Gut. Guy. The word "gift" is the closest word to GIF, and it has a hard G. To pronounce GIF, just say "gift" without the "t".

cafard 5y ago
An argument of pure genius!
jwiz 5y ago
The thing is, he named it. So he gets to say how it is spelled and how it is pronounced. You don't call the Spanish exchange student "Gee-Suss", you call him "Hey-soos", because it's a name.
- zzleeper 5y ago
  Nah, once it's out there people can do whatever they want with it, in the same way that once "xerox" became a common word, it wouldn't matter if Xerox Corp. came and said "hey btw it's pronounced as ZEROZ".
  - jwiz 5y ago
    "I don't care what you say your name is, I seen how you spells it, yer Gee-suss."
    - necovek 5y ago
      Except that GIF is not a personal name, and all those meme GIFs won't be mad if we call them "jifs" or "gifs". Names for things get lives of their own. Similarly, I don't think it merits looking at similar words for the "proper" pronounciation. If anything, it makes sense to look at expanded acronym (Graphics Interchange Format) which still points at the hard G (unless it's Jraphics Interchange Format :)). But hearing it from whoever coined the term is definitely similarly applicable. Still, I would reiterate, names for things that get wide adoption get their own lives, and we'd face an uphill battle to stop people from using them how they want. As long as we can understand each other, we are golden. And when we can't, it's not that hard to get back on the same page.

sedatk 5y ago

GIF could be the oldest file format standard that's remained popular and yet unchanged. I wrote about it here: https://twitter.com/esesci/status/1506776119441170432 https://twitter.com/esesci/status/1506776119441170432

ChrisLomont 5y ago
Besides ASCII text files.... TAR files from 1970s? ROFF from the 1960s is still used to create and maintain Unix man pages for all flavors of Unix. MIDI from 1983 is older than GIF.... CSV dates from 1972?
- sedatk 5y ago
  TAR & ROFF have been through changes, GNU variants/extensions etc. MIDI and CSV too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values#History GIF89a has been exactly the same since 1989. Plaintext obviously is the only exception, and I'd already emphasized that in my tweet.
  - ChrisLomont 5y ago
    GIF89a left some things undefined (larger than 256 color palettes, timing 0 frames, partial frames, etc), so while the text of 89a is fixed, modern GIF decoders handle s superset of GIF files, just like modern CSV files. Also GIF89a supported embedded text to be drawn, which is not implemented in any modern decoder I am aware of. Web browsers certainly don't support it. So GIF89a is not technically still in use - we're using a more recent, less standardized flavor. If I recall, there are other things like this related to modern GIF versus old GIF89a gifs - I ran into a lot of this working on hiding information in GIF file encoding choices (not in the images or file, but simply in choices made by the encoder). Then I scanned zillions of online GIFs to see if someone else had done this, and kept finding weird edge cases in GIF89a. I think there are also many currently used GIF extension blocks that are in use that were not in the GIF89a spec. I'll see if I can find a list and dates they appeared (remember, GIF89a allowed anyone to add extensions to the format, and many companies did). MIDI is one type of extension block that was once embedded in GIFs by some vendors. PCM audio is another block that appears in some GIFs (so would these not count as GIF format being modified later?) So even GIF89a is not exactly the same :) MIDI, v1.0, still works and reads just fine. And it's still widely used (likely the most common flavor of MIDI in use). Current readers read ancient CVS files just fine, so there are modern behaviors, but the original file format is still also in use. The tar format in use was made a POSIX standard in 1988, older than GIF89a. The extended formats do not have .tar extensions. TROFF seems to use the exact same file format it did in 1973: https://troff.org/history.html https://troff.org/history.html. The extensions you mention are making it have different output formats, ore making a new version to process the same file format but with code under different legal provenance.

zzleeper 5y ago

In case anyone knows, was this related to antivaxxing? With three doses, mortality rate is pretty low now.

veltas 5y ago
Unfortunately I know people that have died fully dosed, from COVID. The mortality rate has always been "low" but it's higher among very elderly, and especially among men. I think it's bad taste to start speculating if someone dies from COVID whether they were part of some kind of ideological group that put themselves more at risk, he's actually part of a group that is just inherently more at risk.

robbiet480 5y ago

He’s with Jod now

mihaic 5y ago
Thank you, I think you've won the argument.

veltas 5y ago

I think the inventor of GIF deserves a black bar.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
Methinks HN should always include a brief who/why summary in their death-notice headlines - as much as I'd like to think we all already know who early leaders in tech are by-name, I'll admit the low-information "Stephen E. Wilhite has died" headline passed me by and while skimming HN I misread it as "Stephen Wile E. Coyote has died" and didn't care to click further. ...it wasn't until hours later when I was bored and idly reading everything that I saw that I earlier misread the title and learned the CompuServ/GIF connection in the HN comments.

pseudolus 5y ago

NPR story with more details: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088410133/gif-creator-dead-steve-wilhite-kathaleen-wife-interview https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088410133/gif-creator-dead-s...

hownottowrite 5y ago

I started at CompuServe in 1990. I met Steve a couple years later when I interviewed to join his team. I didn’t make the cut and I thought he was a bit of a jerk during the interview. Turns out I was the jerk and Steve was actually being really kind to a kid who wasn’t even close to being ready for that level. Anyway, what I can say is that Steve was a lot more than GIF. In fact, back then, no one really thought too much about it, but they thought a lot about Steve. George Jones, another CompuServe alum, penned this a few years back. I think it’s a nice summary. https://web.archive.org/web/20220129204133/http://curious.galthub.com/blog/steve/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220129204133/http://curious.ga...

mrtweetyhack 5y ago