No. Used in reply to a question, particularly one asked using
the `-P' convention. Most hackers assume this derives simply from
LISP terminology for `false' (see also T), but NIL as a negative reply was well-established
among radio hams decades before the advent of LISP. 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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Ninety-Ninety Rule n.
"The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the
development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the
other 90% of the development time." Attributed to Tom Cargill of
Bell Labs, and popularized by Jon Bentley's September 1985
"Bumper-Sticker Computer Science" column in "Communications of
the ACM". It was there called the "Rule of Credibility", a name
which seems not to have stuck. Other maxims in the same vein
include the law attributed to the early British computer
scientist Douglas Hartree: "The time from now until the
completion of the project tends to become constant."