Bad and Wrong

Bad and Wrong is the description of something that is both badly designed and wrongly executed. This common term is the prototype of, and is used by contrast with, three less common terms - Bad and Right (a kludge, something ugly but functional); Good and Wrong (an overblown GUI or other attractive nuisance); and (rare praise) Good and Right. These terms entered common use at Durham around 1994 and may have been imported from elsewhere; they are also in use at Oxford, and the emphatic form "Evil and Bad and Wrong" (abbreviated EBW) is reported from there. There are standard abbreviations: they start with B&R, a typo for "Bad and Wrong". Consequently, B&W is actually "Bad and Right", G&R = "Good and Wrong", and G&W = "Good and Right". Compare evil and rude, Good Thing, Bad Thing.

This article or an earlier version of it came from the Jargon File.