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Computer programmer Stephen E. Wilhite, best known for inventing GIF, the looping animations that have become the universal language for conveying humor, sarcasm, and anger on social media and instant messages, died March 14 in Cincinnati. He was 74 years old. .
His death at a hospital was confirmed on Thursday by his wife, Kathaleen Wilhite, who said the cause was complications from Covid-19.
In 1987, while working for CompuServe, the nation’s first online service, Mr. Wilhite led a team of engineers that revolutionized how people could share video clips on the Internet. They called the format they created GIF, short for graphic interchange format, a type of compressed image file with the ease of use that makes it permanent.
The appeal of the technology has expanded from computers to smartphones, giving the famous and not so famous the ability to share GIFs on platforms like Twitter and Facebook and eventually create their own loops. It inspired the famous “dancing baby” GIF in 1996 and popular apps like Giphy.
Mr. Wilhite said, “I saw the format I wanted in my head and then I started programming” He told The New York Times in 2013.
That year, Mr. Wilhite, who is also America Online’s former chief architect, received a lifetime achievement award at the Webby Awards.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Wilhite’s survivors include a son, David Wilhite; stepchildren Rick Groves, Robin Landrum, Renee Bennett and Rebecca Boaz; 11 grandchildren; and three grandchildren.
In 2012, the Oxford American Dictionaries GIF “word of the year”
While the usefulness of Mr. Wilhite’s innovation was undisputed, the pronunciation of “GIF” was a topic of frequent discussion. Is it pronounced with a hard G sound or a soft sound?
“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,” said Mr Wilhite. “They’re wrong. It’s a soft G and pronounced ‘jif’. End of story.”
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