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ill-behaved: adj. 1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or computational method
that tends to blow up because of accumulated roundoff error or poor
convergence properties. 2. [obs.] Software that bypasses the defined
OS interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard,
and disk I/O) itself, often in a way that depends on the hardware of the
machine it is running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other
pieces of software. In the MS-DOS world, there was a folk theorem (nearly
true) to the effect that (owing to gross inadequacies and performance
penalties in the OS interface) all interesting applications were
ill-behaved. See also bare metal. Oppose
well-behaved. See also
mess-dos. 3. In modern usage, a program is called ill-behaved if it uses
interfaces to the OS or other programs that are private, undocumented, or
grossly non-portable. Another way to be ill-behaved is to use headers or
files that are theoretically private to another application.
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