Re: COBOL to Java conversion

In article <5QtVi.286478$zt4.84966@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
William M. Klein <wmklein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Alistair" <alistair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
<snip>
"COBOL to Java is like a dog raised up on its hinder legs. It is not
surprising that it does it poorly; what is surprising is that it would want
to do so at all."- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That begs (sorry, no pun intended) the question: what was the original
Samuel Johnson quote?

From:
http://www.bartleby.com/66/93/31293.html

"QUOTATION:
A woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is
not done
well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

P.S. What is the quote about teaching a dog or a bear to dance? That
is what I
thought of first with this quote, but couldn't find it online (as I don't
remember enough of the quote).

There's one warning against trying to teach a pig to sing... but for
ursines all I can remember is 'The miracle of a dancing bear is not how
gracefully it dances, but that it dances at all.'

DD

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: COBOL to Java conversion
    ... surprising that it does it poorly; what is surprising is that it would want ... Samuel Johnson quote? ... "Never try to teach a pig to sing. ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: (case quote (lambda 1) (otherwise 2))
    ... This is quite surprising to me. ... Both implementations give less surprising results for (eq 'quote ... 'lambda is the same as the two element list. ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Re: COBOL to Java conversion
    ... surprising that it does it poorly; what is surprising is that it would want ... Samuel Johnson quote? ... What is the quote about teaching a dog or a bear to dance? ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: Best pinball toy ever?
    ... Cool, very surprising for ... every first-timer (quote from friend: ...
    (rec.games.pinball)
  • Re: (case quote (lambda 1) (otherwise 2))
    ... I have found 2 Common Lisp implementations that think that the above ... This is quite surprising to me. ... So (quote quote) is evaluated to produce the symbol quote. ... symbols t and otherwise may not be used as the keys designator. ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)