TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
CompuServe comes up with GIF...
CIS made the info free (to help cement their service as a leader..
and to help build sales of new accounts (what was that price?
($18.95/hour for 2400 bps..?? 8-) ))
problem: Unisys discovers that their patent on Lempel-Ziv-Welch
compression algorithms also applies to CIS's GIF encoding
and decoding scheme. Unisys enters "Let's Make a Deal" mode.
CIS negotiates a "settlement" that they _don't_ announce to the
customers until at a christmas break (or some other holiday).
Many developers were _very_ disappointed in the management of
CompuServe not being forthcoming about the "deal".
I recall the fuss and how most people thought that CIS should
"die" since they had known about the infringement for some time
and had not passed on the information about the situation to
developers who were going to be liable for royalities to Unisys
and probably Compuserve as well.
Big move to JPEG begins.
Development of PNG begins.
GIF dies as a format for new development
- existing applications are grandfathered.
CompuServe acquired by AOL. That's when I canceled my account.
