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A new PNG spec

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614 points bluedel | 1 comments | 24 Jun 25 13:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.22s | source
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369548684892826 ◴[25 Jun 25 12:06 UTC] No.44376322[source]▶
A fun fact about PNG, the correct pronunciation is defined in the specification

> PNG is pronounced “ping”

See the end of Section 1 [0]

0: https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-png.pdf

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dspillett ◴[25 Jun 25 12:15 UTC] No.44376393[source]▶
Because the creator of gifs telling the world how he pronounced it made such a huge difference :)

Not sure I'll bother to reprogram myself from “png”, “pung”, or “pee-enn-gee”.

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LocalH ◴[25 Jun 25 13:23 UTC] No.44377049[source]▶
I've said "jif" for almost 40 years, and I'm not stopping anytime soon.

Hard-g is wrong, and those who use it are showing they have zero respect for others when they don't have to.

It's the tech equivalent to the shopping cart problem. What do you do when there is no incentive one way or the other? Do you do the right thing, or do you disrespect others?

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npteljes ◴[25 Jun 25 14:41 UTC] No.44377906[source]▶
As much as I hate jif, thinking about it, "GPU" works the same - we say gee-pee-you and not gh-pee-you. Garbage Collection is also gee-cee. So it's only logical that jif is the correct one - even if it's not the widely accepted one.

Wrt/ communication, aside from personal preference, one can either respect the creator, or the audience. If I stand in front of 10 colleagues, 10 out of them would not understand jif, or would only get it because this issue has some history now. gif on the other hand has no friction.

Ghengis Khan for example sounds very different from its original Mongolian pronunciation. And there is a myriad others as well.

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LocalH ◴[25 Jun 25 15:54 UTC] No.44378704[source]▶
The whole debate seems to be a modern phenomenon to me - from my anecdotal experience back in the day, it was never questioned by computer enthusiasts that it was pronounced "jif".
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1. eCa ◴[25 Jun 25 17:53 UTC] No.44380034[source]▶
I (as a non-native English speaker) have pronounced it with a hard g since first i saw it (mid ’90s) and many years before I learned how the creator preferred it to be pronounced.

I continue to pronounce it how I prefer it, not as a slight, but most people here would be surprised by the soft g.

If I ever meet him I’ll attempt to pronounce it soft-g.

On the other hand, even though my name exists and is reasonably common in English, I’m fairly certain neither you or the GIF creator would address me the way I pronounce my name. I would understand anyway, and wouldn’t care one bit.