[very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Orig. fr. the 1930
Sellar & Yeatman parody of British history 1066 And All That, but
well-established among hackers in the U.S. as well.]
1. Self-evidently wonderful to anyone in a position to notice: "A
language that manages dynamic memory automatically for you is a Good
Thing."
2. Something that can't possibly have any ill side-effects and may
save considerable grief later: "Removing the self-modifying code from
that shared library would be a Good Thing."
3. When said of software tools or libraries, as in "YACC is a Good
Thing", specifically connotes that the thing has drastically reduced
a programmer's work load. Oppose {Bad Thing}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {Bad and Wrong}{Bad Thing}{demoeffect}{ELIZA effect}{flat}{Real Programmer}{SEX}{trap door}]