Re: USAGE: Title Case [Was: USAGE: YAEUT: "proper"]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 12:35 AM, Paul Kershaw <ptkershaw@...> wrote:
> Along the same lines, I've seen cataloging software for books, etc., that ignore
> "A" and "The" at the beginning of titles for alphabetizing, but it's more
> unusual for it to ignore articles in other languages
As they say on the interwebz, THIS.  Our cable TV program guide
ignores "The", but not "El" or "La", and since we have a couple
all-Spanish channels, those parts of the alphabet are a little
crowded. :\  But as you point out, it's a Hard Problem without extra
out-of-band information of some sort.
> Then there's what to do about articles about the band The The. :) Some style
> manuals dictate lower case "the" in headlines even when it's part of a band
> name, such as "Prince Attends the Beatles Concert." Challenge: Teach a word
> processor how to automatically handle "Prince Attends the The Concert."
Bonus points: have it also work when the prince in question is the
Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known as Prince and the
first word is represented as his ideoglyph. :)

> So '100 Bottles of Beer' will start with a close-curl, but '99 Bottles of Beer' will start with
> an open-curl.
Yuck.


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>