Good Thing

Did you know that the expression Good Thing is actually trademarked, by something quite evil? You can look it up on the USPTO database (number 2272142), or if you're lazy you can find the answer right here on Everything.

Scary, huh?

gonzo = G = google

Good Thing n.,adj.

[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.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.