• RIP: Creators of the GIF and TRS-80

    From Sean Dennis@618:618/1 to All on Sun Mar 27 17:07:03 2022
    From: https://tinyurl.com/57y5cjnh (theregister.com)

    RIP: Creators of the GIF and TRS-80

    Thank you, Stephen E. Wilhite for your seminal image format, and John
    Roach for your pioneering microcomputer

    Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor
    Thu 24 Mar 2022 // 08:00 UTC

    Two important figures in computing industry have died.

    Stephen E. Wilhite will be remembered as the creator of the Graphics Interchange Format -- the ubiquitous GIF -- and always insisted it
    be pronounced as "jif" with a soft "g".

    Those who pointed out that his preferred pronunciation was
    inconsistent or illogical were met with a stern: "They are wrong".

    Wilhite created the GIF when working at CompuServe -- a pioneering
    online service founded in 1969 and which, by the mid-1980s, had
    evolved to the point some users expected to see graphics when they
    dialled in to check their mails or chat in forums.

    Wilhite and his colleagues devised the GIF in 1987 to make image
    display possible on CompuServe. The format became a de facto standard
    and then enjoyed an enormous revival in the early 2000s thanks to its
    ability to display animations -- a feature greatly appreciated before
    the widespread advent of streaming video -- and later by users of
    social media.

    A family obituary for Wilhite states that he received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the GIF and used his acceptance speech to again
    restate his preferred pronunciation for the file format he created.

    Wilhite and finished his career as chief architect from America Online
    (which acquired CompuServe in 1997). He died aged 74 and is survived
    by his wife Kathaleen, his son David, several stepchildren, 11
    grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

    Many GIFs almost certainly found their way onto the TRS-80 -- an
    early personal microcomputer sold by Tandy through its network of
    Radio Shack stores.

    The computer was the brainchild of John Roach, who in the mid-1970s
    saw the growing market for personal computers sold as kits and decided
    a market existed for a pre-built machine.

    That machine was the TRS-80, and its $599.95 price tag (about $1050 in
    today's money) saw it sell strongly when it reached stores in 1977.
    And as Tandy ran over 8,000 stores at the time, the TRS-80 brought
    computers into the suburbs like no other previous machine.

    The TRS-80 is also of enormous importance because Tandy hired a pair
    of chaps named Bill Gates and Paul Allen to write software for the
    machine. In case you haven't been paying attention, they later founded
    a little company you may have heard of called "Microsoft".

    Roach had a long career at Tandy, becoming CEO in 1983 and holding
    that position until 1999. He passed at age 83 and is survived by his
    wife, their two daughters, six grandchildren, and a
    great-granddaughter.

    On behalf of our readers, The Register extends its condolences to Mr
    Roach's and Mr Wilhite's families. Both men made enormous
    contributions to our industry, and we feel sure that many readers'
    first experiences of computers or online communities involved the
    TRS-80 or CompuServe.

    If you'd like to share your CompuServe, TRS-80, or GIF stories, drop
    me a line and we may give these pioneers a reader-contributed farewell
    to match the one you helped us write for Sir Clive Sinclair.

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (618:618/1)
  • From Jas Hud@618:300/12 to Sean Dennis on Sun Mar 27 17:05:50 2022
    To: Sean Dennis
    Re: RIP: Creators of the GIF and TRS-80
    By: Sean Dennis to All on Sun Mar 27 2022 05:07 pm


    From: https://tinyurl.com/57y5cjnh (theregister.com)

    RIP: Creators of the GIF and TRS-80




    i thought this headline was funny:

    "He's With Jod Now": Internet Pays Tribute To GIF Creator Stephen Wilhite"
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
    * bbses.info - http://bbses.info - telnet://bbses.info
    * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (618:300/12)
  • From Sean Dennis@618:618/1 to Jas Hud on Sun Mar 27 22:20:55 2022
    Hello Jas,

    27 Mar 22 17:05, you wrote to me:

    "He's With Jod Now": Internet Pays Tribute To GIF Creator Stephen
    Wilhite"

    He always insisted on that. I thought he should have been selling peanut butter also.

    -- Sean

    ... That does not compute.
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (618:618/1)
  • From Jas Hud@618:300/12 to Sean Dennis on Sun Mar 27 22:04:03 2022
    To: Sean Dennis
    Re: RIP: Creators of the GIF and TRS-80
    By: Sean Dennis to Jas Hud on Sun Mar 27 2022 10:20 pm

    From Newsgroup: Micronet.MIN_COMP

    Hello Jas,

    27 Mar 22 17:05, you wrote to me:

    "He's With Jod Now": Internet Pays Tribute To GIF Creator Stephen Wilhite"

    He always insisted on that. I thought he should have been selling peanut butter also.

    it would piss him off back in the day. i dont know if he mellowed out in old age or not. i'm also not sure how bad that stroke he had affected him.
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
    * bbses.info - http://bbses.info - telnet://bbses.info
    * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (618:300/12)