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NIL

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.09 sec.
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.


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To which Samson replied, "The difference between the two sorts of madmen is, that he who is so will he nil he, will be one always, while he who is so of his own accord can leave off being one whenever he likes.
Don Quixote by Cervantes, Miguel View in context
He would indeed have been obliged to admit that in the eastern--much the larger--part of Russia rent was as yet nil, that for nine-tenths of the eighty millions of the Russian peasants wages took the form simply of food provided for themselves, and that capital does not so far exist except in the form of the most primitive tools.
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo View in context
You know of course that a mathematical line, a line of thickness NIL, has no real existence.
The Time Machine by Wells, H.G. View in context
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