An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#1

Post by fjordan » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:23 AM UTC

An Honor for the Creator of the GIF
bits.blogs.nytimes.com

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#2

Post by aroch » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:36 AM UTC

Reminds me of this page: http://www.olsenhome.com/gif/

Which has, conservatively, been around forever

>I worked with the creator of GIF (Steve Wilhite) when I was still employed by CompuServe. Steve always pronounced it "jiff" and would correct those who pronounced it with a hard G. "Choosy developers choose GIF" (spinning off of a historically popular peanut butter commercial).

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#3

Post by mcmSEA » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:45 AM UTC

"that's Frahn-ken-steen."

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#4

Post by krapp » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:47 AM UTC

I don't care what the creator of the format says. I'm using the hard g.

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#5

Post by nickhalfasleep » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:47 AM UTC

The only thing pronounced is how aged and antiquated the format is.

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#6

Post by softbuilder » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:50 AM UTC

I'm pretty sure it's pronounced "ping" now since GIF is rolling slowly to the dustbin. Of course I'm sure the creator of the PNG format would say it's pronounced "pong". At least that would make sense. The whole jiff joke was never, ever funny.

The reason people use a hard G is because that's what makes sense given the wording of the acronym. Unless I've been pronouncing "graphics" wrong this whole time?

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#7

Post by bonjourmr » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:52 AM UTC

The 'G' sound in the word 'G-raphics' (GIF = Graphics Interchange Format) makes more sense to carry over to the acronym. I think the boats understandably sailed Mr.White!

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#8

Post by rmrfrmrf » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:53 AM UTC

softbuilder wrote: post #6

I'm pretty sure it's pronounced "ping" now since GIF is rolling slowly to the dustbin. Of course I'm sure the creator of the PNG format would say it's pronounced "pong". At least that would make sense. The whole jiff joke was never, ever funny. The reason people use a hard G is because that's what makes sense given the wording of the acronym. Unless I've been pronouncing "graphics" wrong this whole time?

giraffics.

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#9

Post by 300bps » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:53 AM UTC

I use GIF pronunciation to tell how long someone has been on the Internet and precursors of the Internet. I got my first modem (300 baud Mitey Mo) in 1985 and I've seen this story come up at least 50 times since then.

If you've been on the Internet over 15 years then this will not be news to you. The other thing I find interesting about the GIF format is how everyone assumes it was designed for animation. I saw someone on reddit "knowingly" tell another redditor "oh yeah there can be non animated GIFs they just consist of a single frame of animation."

Re: An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

#10

Post by joonix » Wed, May 22, 2013, 2:53 AM UTC

And it's "Amerigo," according to Vespucci.