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   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   
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