Proper English Title Capitalization

Proper English Title Capitalization

[Karl Voit]

Hi!

I was looking for a method to capitalize headings/titles according
to [1]. I found ~s-titleise-s~ which simply capitalizes every word.
However, I was looking for a method which turns stopwords into lower
case and non-stopwords into capitalized words.

Is there something out there?


No, I don't know enough Elisp to code it by myself and I have no
idea if there is a set of English stopwords stored in Emacs.


[1] http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=titlecaps
    I'm sure there are better resources as well.

[2] https://github.com/magnars/s.el#s-titleize-s

-- 
All in all, one of the most disturbing things today is the definitive
fact that the NSA, GCHQ, and many more government organizations are
massively terrorizing the freedom of us and the next generations.
                                                  http://Karl-Voit.at

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Emanuel Berg]

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

> I was looking for a method to capitalize
> headings/titles according to [1]. I found
> ~s-titleise-s~ which simply capitalizes every word.
> However, I was looking for a method which turns
> stopwords into lower case and non-stopwords into
> capitalized words.
>
> Is there something out there?
>
> No, I don't know enough Elisp to code it by myself
> and I have no idea if there is a set of English
> stopwords stored in Emacs.

Good idea, I can never memorize those goofy rules.
It could be a cool thing to have for example
in BibLaTeX.

You don't have to know a lot of Elisp to do that.
Here is a start. Only you'll have to insert the
"stopwords" yourself.

(setq do-not-capitalize '("ah" "oh" "eh"))

(defun make-a-title (beg end)
  (interactive "r")
  (save-excursion
    (goto-char beg)
    (forward-word)
    (backward-word)
    (while (< (point) end)
      (if (member (thing-at-point 'word t) do-not-capitalize)
          (forward-word)
        (capitalize-word 1) )
      (forward-word)
      (backward-word) )))

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Karl Voit]

Hi Emanuel,

* Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> wrote:
> Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:
>
>> I was looking for a method to capitalize
>> headings/titles according to [1].
>> [1] http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=titlecaps

> Good idea, I can never memorize those goofy rules.

"Those goofy rules" are much more complicated than I thought.

I did some research: What is proper English title capitalization?

  + http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/14/which-words-in-a-title-should-be-capitalized
    - http://english.stackexchange.com/a/34
      1. Always capitalize the first and the last word.
      2. Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs,
         and subordinate conjunctions ("as", "because", "although",
         "if", etc.).
      3. Lowercase all articles, coordinate conjunctions ("and", "or",
         "nor"), and prepositions regardless of length, when they are
         other than the first or last word. (Note: NIVA prefers to
         capitalize prepositions of five characters or more ("after",
         "among", "between").)
      4. Lowercase the "to" in an infinitive.

  + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization#Titles
    - summarizes different approaches

  + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Case_styles
    - compares different approaches

  + http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp
    - Rule 16a. Composition titles: which words should be capitalized
      in titles of books, plays, films, songs, poems, essays,
      chapters, etc.? This is a vexing matter, and policies vary. The
      usual advice is to capitalize only the "important" words. But
      this isn't really very helpful. Aren't all words in a title
      important?
    - The following rules for capitalizing composition titles are universal.
      - Capitalize the title's first and last word.
      - Capitalize verbs, including all forms of the verb to be (is, are, was, etc.).
      - Capitalize all pronouns, including it, he, who, that, etc.
      - Capitalize not.
      - Do not capitalize a, an, or the unless it is first or last in
        the title.
      - Do not capitalize the word and, or, or nor unless it is first
        or last in the title.
      - Do not capitalize the word to, with or without an infinitive,
        unless it is first or last in the title.
    - Otherwise, styles, methods, and opinions vary. Small words such
      as or, as, if, and but are capped by some, but lowercased by
      others.
    - The major bone of contention is prepositions. The Associated
      Press Stylebook recommends capitalizing all prepositions of more
      than three letters (e.g., With, About, Across). Others advise
      lowercase until a preposition reaches five or more letters.
      Still others say not to capitalize any preposition, even big
      words like regarding or underneath.
    - Hyphenated words in a title also present problems. There are no
      set rules. Some writers, editors, and publishers choose not to
      capitalize words following hyphens unless they are proper nouns
      or proper adjectives (Ex-Marine but Ex-husband). Others
      capitalize any word that would otherwise be capped in titles
      (Prize-Winning, Up-to-Date).

  + http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/capitalization/rules-for-capitalization-in-titles.html
    - As you have probably noticed "short" words, those with less than
      five letters, are generally lowercase in titles, unless they are
      the first or last words in a title.
    - Generally, we do not capitalize:
      - Articles: a, an, the
      - Coordinating Conjunctions: and, but, or, for, nor, etc.
      - Prepositions (fewer than five letters): on, at, to, from, by, etc.
    - When in doubt and you do not have a reference guide in front of
      you, here is one general rule to remember recommended by The
      U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual:
      - "Capitalize all words in titles of publications and documents,
        except a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as,
        but, it, or, and nor."

  + http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/coordinatingconjunction.htm
    - "And, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet—these are the seven
      coordinating conjunctions."

  + https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/prepositions
    - on in at since for ago before to past to till until by next
      beside under below over above across through into towards onto
      from off "out of" about
    - less than five letters:
      - on in at for ago to past to till by next over into onto from off

Once again, "it depends" is the correct answer to the title
capitalization question as well.

> You don't have to know a lot of Elisp to do that.
> Here is a start. Only you'll have to insert the
> "stopwords" yourself.
>
> (setq do-not-capitalize '("ah" "oh" "eh"))
>
> (defun make-a-title (beg end)
>   (interactive "r")
>   (save-excursion
>     (goto-char beg)
>     (forward-word)
>     (backward-word)
>     (while (< (point) end)
>       (if (member (thing-at-point 'word t) do-not-capitalize)
>           (forward-word)
>         (capitalize-word 1) )
>       (forward-word)
>       (backward-word) )))

I was wrong by using the term "stop words". However, I came up with
a list of words not to capitalize based on the resources above.

What's still missing in your make-a-title:
  - Always capitalize first word
  - Always capitalize last word
  - List of do-not-capitalize words

My Elisp knowledge is sufficient to modify your code so that it
should get the job done:

,----
| (defun my-title-capitalization (beg end)
|   (interactive "r")
|   (save-excursion
|     (let (
|       (do-not-capitalize '("a" "ago" "an" "and" "as" "at" "but" "by" "for"
|                    "from" "in" "into" "it" "next" "nor" "of" "off"
|                    "on" "onto" "or" "over" "past" "so" "the" "till"
|                    "to" "up" "yet" ))
|       )
|       ;; go to begin of first word:
|       (goto-char beg)
|       (forward-word)
|       (backward-word)
|       ;; capitalize first word in any case:
|       (capitalize-word 1)
|       (while (< (point) end)
|     ;; capitalize each word in between except it is list member:
|     (if (member (thing-at-point 'word t) do-not-capitalize)
|         (forward-word)
|       (capitalize-word 1) )
|     (forward-word)
|     (backward-word) )
|       ;; capitalize last word in any case:
|       (backward-word)
|       (capitalize-word 1)
|       )
|     ))
`----

I was surprised that this quite handy function is not part of Emacs
yet.

-- 
All in all, one of the most disturbing things today is the definitive
fact that the NSA, GCHQ, and many more government organizations are
massively terrorizing the freedom of us and the next generations.
                                                  http://Karl-Voit.at

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Rasmus]

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

> "Those goofy rules" are much more complicated than I thought.

All the more reason to make a `capitalize-word' equivalent for titles!
I'd certainly appreciate it.

Or do as some Speigel journals and adopt "Euro-English" and capitalize in
a sane manner, namely like any other sentences....

—Rasmus

-- 
. . . The proofs are technical in nature and provides no real understanding

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Karl Voit]

* Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> wrote:
>
> My Elisp knowledge is sufficient to modify your code so that it
> should get the job done:

I have to post a corrected version of the code which also handles
the edge case "a a a a a" (a do-not-capitalize word as second word)
properly:

,----
| (defun my-title-capitalization (beg end)
|   (interactive "r")
|   (save-excursion
|     (let (
|       (do-not-capitalize '("a" "ago" "an" "and" "as" "at" "but" "by" "for"
|                    "from" "in" "into" "it" "next" "nor" "of" "off"
|                    "on" "onto" "or" "over" "past" "so" "the" "till"
|                    "to" "up" "yet" ))
|       )
|       ;; go to begin of first word:
|       (goto-char beg)
|       (forward-word)
|       (backward-word)
|       ;; capitalize first word in any case:
|       (capitalize-word 1)
|       (forward-word)
|       (backward-word)
|       (while (< (point) end)
|     ;; capitalize each word in between except it is list member:
|     (if (member (thing-at-point 'word t) do-not-capitalize)
|         (forward-word)
|       (capitalize-word 1) )
|     (forward-word)
|     (backward-word) )
|       ;; capitalize last word in any case:
|       (backward-word)
|       (capitalize-word 1)
|       )
|     ))
`----

-- 
All in all, one of the most disturbing things today is the definitive
fact that the NSA, GCHQ, and many more government organizations are
massively terrorizing the freedom of us and the next generations.
                                                  http://Karl-Voit.at

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Karl Voit]

I also blogged about this thread and its solution:
http://karl-voit.at/2015/05/25/elisp-title-capitalization/

-- 
All in all, one of the most disturbing things today is the definitive
fact that the NSA, GCHQ, and many more government organizations are
massively terrorizing the freedom of us and the next generations.
                                                  http://Karl-Voit.at

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Rasmus]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 430 bytes --]

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

> I also blogged about this thread and its solution:
> http://karl-voit.at/2015/05/25/elisp-title-capitalization/

Ah that's funny.  I like M-c though.  The attached file does something
similar to your script, but plugs into capitalize-word at supported title
lines (== org and message) if hooked in.

–Rasmus

-- 
Evidence suggests Snowden used a powerful tool called monospaced fonts

[-- Attachment #2: smartcap.el --]
[-- Type: application/emacs-lisp, Size: 6262 bytes --]

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Barry Fishman]

On 2015-05-25 12:47:51 +0200, Karl Voit wrote:
> * Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> wrote:
>>
>> My Elisp knowledge is sufficient to modify your code so that it
>> should get the job done:
>
> I have to post a corrected version of the code which also handles
> the edge case "a a a a a" (a do-not-capitalize word as second word)
> properly:
>
> ,----
> | (defun my-title-capitalization (beg end)
> |   (interactive "r")
> |   (save-excursion
> |     (let (
> |       (do-not-capitalize '("a" "ago" "an" "and" "as" "at" "but" "by" "for"
> |                    "from" "in" "into" "it" "next" "nor" "of" "off"
> |                    "on" "onto" "or" "over" "past" "so" "the" "till"
> |                    "to" "up" "yet" ))
> |       )
> |       ;; go to begin of first word:
> |       (goto-char beg)
> |       (forward-word)
> |       (backward-word)
> |       ;; capitalize first word in any case:
> |       (capitalize-word 1)
> |       (forward-word)
> |       (backward-word)
> |       (while (< (point) end)
> |     ;; capitalize each word in between except it is list member:
> |     (if (member (thing-at-point 'word t) do-not-capitalize)
> |         (forward-word)
> |       (capitalize-word 1) )
> |     (forward-word)
> |     (backward-word) )
> |       ;; capitalize last word in any case:
> |       (backward-word)
> |       (capitalize-word 1)
> |       )
> |     ))
> `----

If you are looking for more alternative coding:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
;; This is probably subject for debate and tuning.
(defvar own-stop-words '("a" "an" "the" "at" "by" "for" "in"
                         "of" "on" "to" "up" "and" "as" "but"
                         "it" "or" "nor" "n" "t" "es" "s")
  "Words that are not capitalized in titles.")

(defun own-title-region (beg end)
  "Capitalize region as a title,"
  (interactive "r")
  (save-excursion
    (goto-char beg)
    (capitalize-word 1)
    (while (< (point) end)
      (skip-syntax-forward "^w" end)
      (let ((word (thing-at-point 'word t)))
        (if (stringp word)
            (if (member (downcase word) own-stop-words)
                (downcase-word 1)
              (capitalize-word 1)))))
    (backward-word 1)
    (if (and (>= (point) beg)
             (not (member (or (thing-at-point 'word t) "s")
                          '("n" "t" "es" "s"))))
        (capitalize-word 1))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

--
Barry Fishman

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Karl Voit]

* Barry Fishman <barry_fishman@acm.org> wrote:
>
>
> If you are looking for more alternative coding:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> ;; This is probably subject for debate and tuning.
> (defvar own-stop-words '("a" "an" "the" "at" "by" "for" "in"
>                          "of" "on" "to" "up" "and" "as" "but"
>                          "it" "or" "nor" "n" "t" "es" "s")
>   "Words that are not capitalized in titles.")
>
> (defun own-title-region (beg end)
>   "Capitalize region as a title,"
>   (interactive "r")
>   (save-excursion
>     (goto-char beg)
>     (capitalize-word 1)
>     (while (< (point) end)
>       (skip-syntax-forward "^w" end)
>       (let ((word (thing-at-point 'word t)))
>         (if (stringp word)
>             (if (member (downcase word) own-stop-words)
>                 (downcase-word 1)
>               (capitalize-word 1)))))
>     (backward-word 1)
>     (if (and (>= (point) beg)
>              (not (member (or (thing-at-point 'word t) "s")
>                           '("n" "t" "es" "s"))))
>         (capitalize-word 1))))
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Thanks for your version. I tested it and it worked great. I added
your input to my solution and to my blog entry.

-- 
All in all, one of the most disturbing things today is the definitive
fact that the NSA, GCHQ, and many more government organizations are
massively terrorizing the freedom of us and the next generations.
                                                  http://Karl-Voit.at

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Karl Voit]

* Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> wrote:
>
> ,----
>| (defun my-title-capitalization (beg end)
>|   (interactive "r")
>|   (save-excursion
>|     (let (
>|       (do-not-capitalize '("a" "ago" "an" "and" "as" "at" "but" "by" "for"
>|                    "from" "in" "into" "it" "next" "nor" "of" "off"
>|                    "on" "onto" "or" "over" "past" "so" "the" "till"
>|                    "to" "up" "yet" ))
>|       )
>|       ;; go to begin of first word:
>|       (goto-char beg)
>|       (forward-word)
>|       (backward-word)
>|       ;; capitalize first word in any case:
>|       (capitalize-word 1)
>|       (forward-word)
>|       (backward-word)
>|       (while (< (point) end)
>|     ;; capitalize each word in between except it is list member:
>|     (if (member (thing-at-point 'word t) do-not-capitalize)
>|         (forward-word)
>|       (capitalize-word 1) )
>|     (forward-word)
>|     (backward-word) )
>|       ;; capitalize last word in any case:
>|       (backward-word)
>|       (capitalize-word 1)
>|       )
>|     ))
> `----
>

With the version above and the version of others as well, I get
errors on my Windows computer running GNU Emacs 24.3.1
(i386-mingw-nt6.1.7601):

| let: Wrong number of arguments: #[(thing) "<some special characters
| which I can't post here since they are obviously binary or
| something>" [thing bounds thing-at-point bounds-of-thing-at-point] 3
| ("c:/Program Files/emacs-24.3/lisp/thingatpt.elc" . 2271)], 2

The weird text does not occur in the region at all.

-- 
All in all, one of the most disturbing things today is the definitive
fact that the NSA, GCHQ, and many more government organizations are
massively terrorizing the freedom of us and the next generations.
                                                  http://Karl-Voit.at

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Emanuel Berg]

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

>> Good idea, I can never memorize those goofy rules.
>
> "Those goofy rules" are much more complicated than
> I thought.
>
> I did some research: What is proper English
> title capitalization? [...]

The authoritative source is probably a grammar book
from the sturdy and meticulous islanders themselves,
which is Oxford in my experience.

Perhaps it is in this book?

    @book{new-oxford-dictionary-for-scientific,
      title      = {The New Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors},
      author     = {Elizabeth Martin},
      edition    = {Second edition},
      publisher  = {Oxford University Press},
      year       = 2009,
      ISBN-13    = 9780199545155
    }

But I don't think those web sources that you mention
are necessarily bad. They should get all or most of it
right. Only when they contradict each other a book has
the advantage to be a permanent source to point to as
the basis of the implementation.

> I was surprised that this quite handy function is
> not part of Emacs yet.

More or less. I think most often, the people who care
don't need it as they know the rules, and the people
who don't care don't look for it.

But I agree it is useful, so when you have perfected
the Elisp, send it to the ELPA or some of the other
repositories. You can then re-use parts of the
homepage text as documentation.

And, I appreciate the compliment [1] tho I suspect you
have already spent much more time on the issue than I.
But I'm glad I could help you get started.

[1] http://karl-voit.at/2015/05/25/elisp-title-capitalization/

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Proper English Title Capitalization

[Karl Voit]

* Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> wrote:
>
> I was looking for a method to capitalize headings/titles according
> to [1].
> [1] http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=titlecaps

I put my solution on GitHub[2] and updated my blog article [3].

Additionally, I am going to try to publish it as a marmalade
package. My first package ;-)

[2] https://github.com/novoid/title-capitalization.el
[3] http://karl-voit.at/2015/05/25/elisp-title-capitalization/

-- 
All in all, one of the most disturbing things today is the definitive
fact that the NSA, GCHQ, and many more government organizations are
massively terrorizing the freedom of us and the next generations.
                                                  http://Karl-Voit.at