Titlecase: A Great Find
#######################

:title: Titlecase: A Great Find
:date: 2014-09-18
:category: Software
:tags: programming, python, blogging
:slug: titlecase-a-great-find
:author: Chris Ramsay
:status: published
:language: en
:show_source: True

.. contents::

Title Case
----------

.. PELICAN_BEGIN_SUMMARY

As a rather inexperienced writer, it is the little things I struggle with, as
well as the big things you might add. I find that one of the most annoying is
getting title case correct. There are a lot of style guides about which may or
may not help; I find some of them cryptic at times, and rather than being strict
rules, they seem to be more matters of style. Until recently I had been taking
style advice from `yourdictionary.com's`_ site, but I always found having to
undertake this task manually a bit of a bore.

However, as with most programmers (or even ex-programmers like myself), I find
that as soon as I am faced with a repetetive task I look to find a way of
automating it; and thus it happened with this. Five minutes later and I had
turned up `Pat Pannuto's`_ Python based `titlecase package`_.

.. PELICAN_END_SUMMARY

Up and Running
--------------

Getting titlecase up and running couldn't be simpler:

.. code-block:: bash

    $ pip install titlecase
    Downloading/unpacking titlecase
      Downloading titlecase-0.7.1.tar.gz
      Running setup.py (path:/home/vagrant/Envs/blog/build/titlecase/setup.py) egg_info for package titlecase
        no previously-included directories found matching 'doc/.build'

        Installed /home/vagrant/Envs/blog/build/titlecase/nose-1.3.4-py2.7.egg

    Installing collected packages: titlecase
      Running setup.py install for titlecase

    Successfully installed titlecase
    Cleaning up...

Using it couldn't be much simpler either:

.. code-block:: python

    $ python
    Python 2.7.3 (default, Jan  2 2013, 13:56:14)
    [GCC 4.7.2] on linux2
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> from titlecase import titlecase
    >>> titlecase('the lion, the witch and the wardrobe')
    'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'
    >>> titlecase('Titlecase: a Great find')
    'Titlecase: A Great Find'
    >>> titlecase('Why it is never too late to learn grammar')
    'Why It Is Never Too Late to Learn Grammar'

So, in summation, thumbs up to Mr Pannuto and thanks for such a useful library.
I plan to make much use of it in the future.

.. _`yourdictionary.com's`: http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/capitalization/rules-for-capitalization-in-titles.html
.. _`Pat Pannuto's`: http://patpannuto.com
.. _`titlecase package`: https://github.com/ppannuto/python-titlecase