One of the most famous jeeps in the world – Obama and the fall of the microphone
Stephen Willheit, the programmer who became famous after inventing the GIF format, died at the age of 74 after contracting the corona virus. The family statement said he was laid to rest today (Thursday) in the city of Milford, Ohio.
Willheit was a programmer at the American computer company Compuserve, which developed the first GIF in 1987. The format was originally used as a way to send high-quality color images – but in recent years gifs have become an especially popular tool on social media, where they are used for sharing short animations. Today there is built-in support for gifs on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and many other sites.
The first gif published on the Internet featured a plane flying in the sky, but in the years since the technology has been perfected and made it possible to create millions of animations for every possible situation. By the way, Willheight himself said in 2013 that his favorite gif is that of a dancing baby.
Willheit’s wife, Kathleen, said in an interview that the development of the gif “was and remains the thing he was most proud of during his lifetime.” She said, “He invented everything on his own, and only after he developed the format at home alone did he bring it to work. He planned it in his head and only then sat down to program everything.”
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