I can't really tell what someone means when he says "you could do worse than [x]." Live example:
If you are just interested in a simple command line processor which uses MSXML 6 then you could do worse than using a simple JScript application.
Does anyone know what, exactly, he is trying to say? What nuance is he trying to convey?
This is an example of litotes, which is stating a positive through a negative. It just means that [X] is not bad, that there are many alternatives that are worse.
In the sentence you link to
If you are just interested in a simple command line processor which uses MSXML 6 then you could do worse than using a simple JScript application.
the person who responded is suggesting that using a simple JScript application is a good choice.
My favorite term for this sort of left-handed compliment (technically called a litotes, as @Robusto pointed out) is "praising with faint damns", a humorous inversion of the better-known "damn with faint praise" (which is so old that Alexander Pope is said to have stolen it from Wycherley.)
It's a indirect compliment. You can go check out this link => http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic24532.html for more explanations.
Another example of litotes is the cliché you've seen many times: "x is no small thing!" as in "to move the earth, no matter the lever, is no small thing."
