Steve Wilhite

Steve Wilhite of CompuServe invented the GIF file format which went on to become the de facto standard for 8-bit images on the Internet.

Steve Wilhite remained on the CompuServe/AOL payroll into the 1st decade of the 21st century working on a variety of CompuServe systems. These included CompuServe's wire protocol for their GUI clients in the 80's, new service features in the early 90's, web chat software in the late 90's, and investigating web community models until his departure after being disabled by a stroke. He has since recovered.

Steve's name come up frequently in the debate over the pronunciation debates over the GIF acronym. Steve always used the pronunciation that sounds like Jif peanut butter and if asked would usually reply "Choosy programmers choose 'jif'."

External links

* [http://www.olsenhome.com/gif/ The GIF Pronunciation Page]