well-behaved

1. [primarily MS-DOS] Said of software conforming to system

interface guidelines and standards. Well-behaved software

uses the operating system to do chores such as keyboard

input, allocating memory and drawing graphics. Oppose

ill-behaved.

2. Software that does its job quietly and without

counterintuitive effects. Especially said of software having

an interface spec sufficiently simple and well-defined that it

can be used as a tool by other software. See cat.

[Jargon File]