RIP: Creators of the GIF and TRS-80
- Reference: 1648108812
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/03/24/in_memoriam_stephen_wilhite_john_roach/
- Source link:
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: [1]"They are wrong" .
[2]
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.
[3]
[4]
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 [5]obituary for Wilhite states that he received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the GIF 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.
[6]Assembly language, arcade games, and YouTube: The Reg speaks to former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer
[7]Remember CompuServe forums? They're still around! Also they're about to die
[8]Seminal game 'Colossal Cave Adventure' released onto GitLab
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.
[9]
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.
[10]
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, [11]drop me a line and we may give these pioneers a reader-contributed farewell to match the one you helped us write for [12]Sir Clive Sinclair . ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2013/05/22/jif_gif/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YjxPXnhzvzFuDJh7p-lAdgAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YjxPXnhzvzFuDJh7p-lAdgAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YjxPXnhzvzFuDJh7p-lAdgAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.megiefuneralhome.com/obituaries/Stephen-E.-Wilhite?obId=24311617#
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/06/plummer_interview/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2017/11/15/compuserve_to_kill_off_its_forums/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/30/eric_raymond_sets_colossal_cave_adventure_free/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YjxPXnhzvzFuDJh7p-lAdgAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YjxPXnhzvzFuDJh7p-lAdgAAAIM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] mailto:simon.sharwood@sitpub.com
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/19/remembering_clive_sinclair/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"R.I.P.
Jod rest his soul and Gesus be with him.
Jlory Be!
I hope that in heaven...
...he gets to dance a jig at a gig
Loved my TRS-80 as a kid.
RIP sir - you helped kick start my lifelong interest (and career) in computing.
Re: Loved my TRS-80 as a kid.
My secondary school had one... it was probably the first computer I got to play with...
Re: Loved my TRS-80 as a kid.
I never got to touch the single TRS-80, the only computer at at our school. It was kept in a locked inner sanctum and it could be glimpsed through the window. Select 6th formers were allowed to poke its keyboard.
To my amazement, a nearby TV repair and record shop that also sold RadioShack/Tandy stuff got one in and left it on display for customers to touch. I had no idea what to do with it, so just stared at it in disbelief. This was the beginning.
Even though I disagree on his pronounciation
I will gladly salute his achievement.
Let us not let his mistaken opinion be a reason to not acknowledge that he did indeed bring a lot of good things into this world.
Re: Even though I disagree on his pronounciation
Indeed.
For several Bulletin Board Systems the GIF files were the raison d'être.
Perhaps fueled some HDD as well as VGA and monitor sales...
PS. Any good source for vintage GIF pictures - of all sorts including the space shuttle launch pics in glorius MCGA?
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.
That looks waaaaay out. According to [1]the US inflation calculator , that should be $2,800 in today's money.
[1] https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
What is it about our American cousins that makes them turn everything into a pseudo-race war? GIF vs JIF. New York pizza vs Chicago pizza. Masks vs freedom.
Who the hell cares?
I cared when my Jif became Cif. FFS!
At least the lemon juice survived. And the American peanut butter brand.
Mmmmrkns care, because they are hardwired to process everything using primitive sorting algorithms that file the results as a boolean. The result of this is that a complex argument that requires debate to effectively filter and refine the arguments at play is bypassed and reduced to a "this vs that" argument. If this process doesn't yield a binary result then other factors generally come in to play such as "Godwins Law" where an thick application of "yank jank thinking" comes into play where instead of rationally discussing aspects in flux, a Mmmmrkn will seek actively remove one of the two variables by likening it to some sort of tragedy or historical clusterfuck. Ergo the invocation of Godwins Law or similar.
TRS80
I loved my TRS80 and the keyboard alone made it feel like a real computer. I spent some time working in the US where I was able to afford to buy a copy of [1]LDOS to run on it. Of course, that meant getting a 5.25" floppy drive to run it, and I had great fun when I turned up at JFK with the floppy drive (the size of a shoebox) under my arm and checked in for my BA flight home. They asked what it was and I told 'em: no problem, and "welcome aboard". Ah, those were the days :)
[1] https://www.tim-mann.org/ldos.html
Does anyone care?
JIF or GIF? The last time an American "corrected" my pronunciation of the word was for schedule. Hi reasoning was that its we don't say shool but we say school. That was when I stopped caring about what American and their bastardised version of English. Yes with an S.
I have a TRS-80 lingering in the garage. I found it for sale in a local market for a few quid years ago. I've no idea if it still works. I think I'll try to arrange a summer of old tech with the grandchildren, old computers along with old photography.
When the TRS-80 was a current product my boss bought one - no chance on my salary - and Ii built a joystick interface for him from a design in Byte - probably one of Steve Ciarcia's.
R.I.P.
Jod rest his soul and Gesus be with him.