Join Capitalized Words

To create a link to new WikiPage, JoinCapitalizedWords to form WikiCase WikiNames.

If you don't want joined capitalized words to become a link, use SixSingleQuotes.

Also called SmashingWordsTogether on MeatballWiki. -- AluoNowu

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WikiWikiWeb's TextFormattingRules say to join capitalized words to have them recognized as a link to another page. For a system that is considered open, Wiki remains rather anal-retentive about its link formatting rules.

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I have studied the code in WikiBase, and find that the real rule for WikiCase page names is thus:

It must begin with a capitalized letter, followed by at least one that is not. Then one or more instances of the above complete the pattern. Only letters are allowed, and every capital letter must be followed by at least one lower case letter. Digits and punctuation end the RegularExpression match.

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Since capitalization is significant to the software, you've got to count on it being less significant to the reader. For example, instead of "CRCCard" try "CrcCard". It doesn't have the capitalization you want for CRC, but it's pretty close.

There are two cases JoinCapitalizedWords doesn't handle well:

• Initials. I'm usually "Paul S. R. Chisholm," but don't know how to make that into a reasonable Wiki link. For names in software, some of us sometimes turn acronyms and abbreviations into words, such as TcpIp.

• Single words. On Wiki, "Cope" becomes JimCoplien. This is known as the WikiSingleWordProblem.

Bagina

-- PaulChisholm

I prefer "CrcCard" as a program variable name. With "CRCCard" its hard to tell where the acronym part ends. For Wiki, I think some more explicit link pattern would be worth having. -- DaveHarris

I used a pretty simple rule for an intranet wiki: initial capital and at least one other capital. It wouldn't hit on 'Cope' or 'I', but it would on 'CrcCard', 'CRCcard', 'CRCCard' or even 'CRC'. Of course, whatever rule is used embodies the tradeoff between the effort to concoct valid WikiNames and the number of bad accidental names. -- KielHodges

CvWiki did the same; this works well except that often you really don't want to define commonly used acronyms. This doesn't do a lot of harm, but it shifts emphasis unnecessarily and actually doing the definitions is a little annoying. So is leaving the trailing ?. Maybe the rule should be "At least two capitals and at least one lower case"? -- PeterMerel

By "actually doing the definitions" you mean creating a page behind the WikiName to get rid of the trailing ?, right? -- Kiel

In my WikiClone, I treat numbers as lowercase letters. Makes spelling out numbers unnecessary (e.g. JavaTwoEnterpriseEdition). Also, why not render with spaces between the words? -- LouFranco

Surely some kind of Escape character would be suitable, and not too much trouble? e.g. Precede the link with something in the EditPage window (I nominate the string '->'), and the Wiki converts it to a link when you hit Save? -- PaulBennett

How about using a leading question mark "?" before the link word or link string? For example: ?Wiki or ?"Wiki Name Plural Problem" or ?JoinCapitalizedWords. This way, the link fragment looks like the last part of the Wiki URL. -- AndrewMartin