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. Esp. 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. 3. Said
of an algorithm that doesn't crash or blow up, even when
given pathological input. Implies that the stability of the
algorithm is intrinsic, which makes this somewhat different from
bulletproof.