7 ms·
Perhaps a larger legacy than being a communications platform is that Compuserve is the reason we have GIF. And fittingly, many of the graphics on that page are
by whoopdedo 3y ago
Perhaps a larger legacy than being a communications platform is that Compuserve is the reason we have GIF.
And fittingly, many of the graphics on that page are GIF. I presume Compuserve never had to worry about Unisys litigation.
- jghn 3y agoAnd how we know that it is pronounced like the peanut butter! As a kid in the 80s on compuserve o still remember coming across that document explaining GIF, including the pronunciation
- prometheus76 3y agoSorry, but you'll never convert me to that pronunciation, even if that's what the founder wants. "G" stands for "graphics", not "jraphics".
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoPerhaps for English, but for Romance languages such as Italian and Latin, the "gi" digram means that the hard g softens to a /dz/ sound, so I'm perfectly comfortable with applying that rule here, and I think it sounds nicer.
- 0x0000000 3y agoI imagine you apply this rule equally to "j-ph-eg" images?
- sandyarmstrong 3y agop for picture ;-)
- jghn 3y agoI know there's a smiley here but for others coming across it who may not know, it's "photographic", not "picture"
- maweaver 3y agoAnd also scuba ("underwater"), laser ("amplification"), etc
- WorldMaker 3y agoAlso png ("pOrtable", "network", "graphics"). The `ing` diphthong in English is a very different IPA letter sequence than N or G in the corresponding words, and the "natural" vowel from the abbreviations is "o" rather than "i".
- twic 3y agoCOronaVIrus Disease 2019.
- weare138 3y agoI'm from Genx. The whole pronunciation thing started as a joke but apparently most people didn't get it and it got out of hand. But maybe that's the hallmark of a really good joke. It just keeps delivering.
- jghn 3y agoI'd never heard the hard-G pronunciation until the late 90s. I was assuming it was an internet newb thing due to correlation. And then one day in the early aughts when I heard someone who'd been a netizen for as long as I was. At that point I realized it was just a thing :)
- vcg3rd 3y agoRight? What's the closest English word to gif? Gift. Gifts, gifting. No other words beginning gif. And even words like girl aren't jirl just because giraffe is. Giraffe came from Arabic through Italian. Inventers don't get to change the language just because they invent something.
- ChrisClark 3y agoExactly why JPEG should be pronounced Juh-Pheg. Joint Photographic Experts Group. If you insist on pronouncing gif like graphics, you'd better be saying Juh-Pheg too.
- DougN7 3y agoGif like “gift”, and jay-peg. Yes, I’m sorry it’s not consistent. And it doesn’t have to be. It is simply correct :)
- Trixter 3y agoThe original programmer specified "peanut butter" in the original docs, but being the author of a format does not make you a linguist. If each component of Graphics Interchange Format is pronounced properly, it is hard-g gif, and not the peanut butter.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago> If each component of Graphics Interchange Format is pronounced properly That's simply not how acronyms work. Acronyms that form a pronounceable word typically coalesce into an agreed pronounciation that does not need to have anything in common with its components. Take for example: ANSI: neither "A" nor "I" is pronounced as their components. CHAP: not sure how you'd murder this to fit a second "H" and the "A" isn't the same, either. CIDR: "C" and "I" differ. I'd laugh at you if you tried to say "kidder"! CMOS: I usually hear this as "see-mahs", but you do you. LAN: different "A" POP: this is not the "O" you're looking for. POST: again laughing at anyone who says "pahst" Those are just the IT-related ones I surveyed. Have fun.