My original intention in reading this book was to see if it’s straightforward to build a shcal(1) UNIX utility, which would be the Solar Hijri version of cal(1) (link to specs) POSIX-standardized utility. It is 10 days past Nowruz so I can still make it seasonal.
However I found this book itself is very entertaining. It is not aimed at just programmers, it can be used by people of all trades. It has a nice ‘aesthetic’. Like a 13 year old American girl addicted to TikTok would give it a ‘Scholar Core’ label. It is still a reference book, but their reference sections is clean and thorough.
I highly recommend giving it a read. It explains calendars from like a billion years ago. These are truly men of letters writing these, so let’s call it ‘Letters Core’!
Funny you would post about such an obscure subject now. I was just checking that book out a couple of days ago, probably because of a reference from the tz database or Joda Time. In my spare time I’m working on a library for calendar calculations so this might just be the push I needed to order that book.
Definitely do. Or just pirate it, it does not matter. I pretty much doubt a cent of what you spend on that print or e-print will be given to any of the authors. Mostly likely, they have been paid beforehand, or were just so passionate on the subject, they did it pro-bono. The publisher is not one of those bougie ‘boutique’ publishers like No Starch Press, it’s freaking Cambridge Press, they can take the loss.
I do often buy books from the aforementioned ‘bougie’ and ‘boutique’ pub houses (mind the ASCII 32) and that’s hard on me because I am cut off from international banking system and have to do it through a courier. But it’s still worth it. Like ‘Crafting an Interpreter’ is a book I would spend money on. Or any of 'Pragmatic Bookshelf’s books, they are great. But don’t waste your money on this.
I realize reading PDFs could be problematic on e-readers, so I will post a guide about making it easier. Check out my post history some time from now.
Thanks.