M
Story
Tell HN: Ralph Giles has died (Xiph.org| Rust@Mozilla | Ghostscript)
It's with much sadness that we announce the passing of our friend and colleague Ralph Giles, or rillian as he was known on IRC.

Ralph began contributing to Xiph.org in 2000 and became a core Ghostscript developer in 2001[1]. Ralph made many contributions to the royalty-free media ecosystem, whether it was as a project lead on Theora, serving as release manager for multiple Xiph libraries or maintaining Xiph infrastructure that has been used across the industry by codec engineers and researchers[2]. He was also the first to ship Rust code in Firefox[3] during his time at Mozilla, which was a major milestone for both the language and Firefox itself.

Ralph was a great contributor, a kind colleague and will be greatly missed.

Official Announcement: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7427730...

[1]: http://www.wizards-of-os.org/archiv/sprecher/g_h/ralph_giles...

[2]: https://media.xiph.org/

[3]: https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/deploying-rust-in-a-large-co...

  • derf_
  • ·
  • 1 hour ago
  • ·
  • [ - ]
I began contributing to Xiph shortly after Ralph did. He was always thoughtful, always curious, always kind, and his example helped me to become a better version of myself. I wish he was still here to review my patches and untangle the nastier bits of arcana needed to deploy our libraries across a broad ecosystem. I wish he was still here to get tacos with us, and plan world domination. He gave so much to those around him that it does not feel right to complain that he is not around to give us more. I miss him.
I'm still mostly without words; I just hear Ralph's voice in my head when I think about his passing. He was a force of warm, kind, friendly enthusiasm. We miss you, rillian.
  • skaul
  • ·
  • 7 hours ago
  • ·
  • [ - ]
I worked with Ralph when he was at Brave. I fondly remember many long walks in downtown Vancouver with him, getting tea at Matchstick and chatting about Rust and privacy and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. I still can't believe this. Huge loss.
rillian was also instrumental in helping to integrate Rust into Chromium at Brave. I worked with him for a few years; since getting to know him, I started noticing his handle in the contributors list across a surprisingly diverse range of other open source projects. RIP, Ralph.
rillian was so very helpful to me as an early engineer. I was trying to leverage Ghostscript libraries to format prescription labels for thermal printers - over serial or usb+serial connectors and using very questionable printers. It wasn't Ghostscript's problem but he was so kind in directing me to the right people to help and even following up to see if my problem was solved.

RIP, Ralph.

I worked with him at Ghostscript, then we occasionally crossed paths in Rust. He was indeed very kind. Peace.
RIP
  • nullc
  • ·
  • 59 minutes ago
  • ·
  • [ - ]
Ralph was one of the kindest and most patient people I ever had the pleasure of working with, online or offline. I wish I'd found more excuses to work with him.
RIP
RIP
RIP
  • nubg
  • ·
  • 13 hours ago
  • ·
  • [ - ]
RIP
  • crest
  • ·
  • 1 hour ago
  • ·
  • [ - ]
RIP.
RIP
  • brson
  • ·
  • 8 hours ago
  • ·
  • [ - ]
RIP
  • imdsm
  • ·
  • 4 hours ago
  • ·
  • [ - ]
RIP
RIP
RIP.
[dead]