convention (From the 1930 Sellar and Yeatman parody "1066
And All That") Often capitalised; always pronounced as if
capitalised.
1. Self-evidently wonderful to anyone in a position to notice:
2. Something that can't possibly have any ill side-effects and
may save considerable grief later: "Removing the
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.
(1995-05-07)