nil

n 1: nothing (as used by a sheriff after an unsuccessful effort

to serve a writ: "nihil habet") [syn: {nihil}]

2: a quantity of no importance; "it looked like nothing I had

ever seen before"; "reduced to nil all the work we had

done"; "we racked up a pathetic goose egg"; "it was all

for naught"; "I didn't hear zilch about it" [syn: {nothing},

{nix}, {nada}, {aught}, {cipher}, {cypher}, {goose egg},

{naught}, {zero}, {zilch}, {zip}]

NIL

/nil/ 1. New Implementation of Lisp. A language intended to

be the successor of {MacLisp}. A large {Lisp}, implemented

mostly in {VAX} {assembly language}. A forerunner of {Common

LISP}.

["NIL: A Perspective", Jon L. White, MACSYMA Users' Conf Proc,

1979].

2. Network Implementation Language. Strom & Yemini, TJWRC,

IBM. Implementation of complex networking protocols in a

modular fashion.

["NIL: An Integrated Language and System for Distributed

Programming", R. Strom et al, SIGPLAN Notices 18(6):73-82

(June 1983)].

3. Empty list or False. In {Lisp}, the empty list (or "nil

list") is used to represent the {Boolean} value False. This

is possible because {Lisp} is not typed. True is represented

by the special {atom} "t".

4. Spoken in reply to a question, particularly one asked using

the "-P" convention it means "No". Most hackers assume this

derives simply from LISP, but NIL meaning "no" was

well-established among radio hams decades before LISP existed.

The historical connection between early hackerdom and the ham

radio world was strong enough that this may have been an

influence.

[{Jargon File}]