Re: SEA Calendrical systems, E.J. Brill

Hi Justin,

   (1) I'm glad to hear that Eade's book has been surpassed --I, too,
am aware of certain limitations as I am working my way through it
(although my interests are different from yours).

   (2) I *do not* find that it provides a good glossary --on the
contrary, I think this is precisely what it lacks the most!
   Most shockingly, it omits any diacritical markings for the Sanskrit
terms! It would be quite a lot of work for me to "guess" any of the
correct spellings (be they Burmese, Thai, Lao, Khmer, or Sanskrit!)
given the vagueness of the romanization.  He presumes that you already
have a shelf of other works to provide you with the original spellings
(non-transliterated) of the terminology!

   (3) The computer programme requries Mac OS-9 *or* a current Mac
(viz., OS-10, "osx") with the supplemental software installed to
emulate OS9.  In other words: it is obsolete, and annoying to run
unless you have a computer of the same vintage.

   I am trying to establish a platform-independent solution by
programming the equations directly into a spreadsheet that could be
used on any computer (e.g., with the free software OpenOffice, or
MS-Excel).

   However, I think that he does not provide *all* of the equations I
would need to do this, as he frequently alludes to two other works,
and leaves the math tacit so as not to rehearse their findings.

   Thus, if you want to Xerox copy yet more resources and mail them to
me here in Vientiane, I will probably be able to put them to good use.

   Even I am astonished that I find this kind of work interesting --but I do.

E.M.