Re: BUG #2579: initcap should not capitalize letter

On Thu, 17 Aug 2006, Dan Franklin wrote:

> Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:34:41 -0400
> From: Dan Franklin <dfranklin(at)fen(dot)com>
> To: tomas(at)tuxteam(dot)de
> Cc: pgsql-bugs(at)postgresql(dot)org
> Subject: Re: [BUGS] BUG #2579: initcap should not capitalize letter
>
> Good point. It is probably not possible to get
> it perfect. But I think that possessives and
> contractions occur more often in a typical body
> of text than Irish names. So it would be right
> more often, even if it is still wrong some of the time.
>
> Dan Franklin

Two thoughts:

1) In English at least, it's only at the trailing end of a word that the
non-capitalization is clear (contractions, possessive, etc).

2) Proper names are unknowable as to what's appropriate and I posit that
there is no algorithm that works for names.

This leads to a conclusion: Never add capitalization inside a string of
letters.

Rgds,
Richard

>
> At 03:08 PM 8/17/2006, tomas(at)tuxteam(dot)de wrote:
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> >On Wed, Aug 16, 2006 at 09:03:08PM +0000, Dan Franklin wrote:
> > >
> > > The following bug has been logged online:
> > >
> > > Bug reference: 2579
> > > Logged by: Dan Franklin
> > > Email address: dfranklin(at)fen(dot)com
> > > PostgreSQL version: 8.1.4
> > > Operating system: GNU/Linux Fedora Core 5
> > > Description: initcap should not capitalize letter after apostrophe
> > > Details:
> > >
> > > The statement
> > > select initcap('John''s Parents');
> > > returns
> > > John'S Parents
> > >
> > > The capital "S" after the apostrophe is incorrect. initcap should consider
> > > the apostrophe to be a word-constituent for the purpose of identifying word
> > > boundaries at which to start capitalizing.
> >
> >Hmm. And what about Flann O'Brien?
> >
> >Tough thing, this.
> >
> >Regards
> >- -- tomás
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>
> Dan Franklin
> Family Education Network
> Pearson Education
> 617-671-3799
>
>
>
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