+def natural_sort(l, key=None):
+ ignore_list = ["a", "the"]
+ def key_func(k):
+ if key is not None:
+ k = key(k)
+ k = k.lower()
+ newk = []
+ for c in re.split("([0-9]+)", k):
+ c = c.strip()
+ if c.isdigit():
+ newk.append(int(c))
+ else:
+ for subc in c.split():
+ if subc not in ignore_list:
+ newk.append(subc)
+ return newk
+
+ return sorted(l, key=key_func)
+
+def append_to_qs(url, params):
+ r = list(urlparse.urlsplit(url))
+ qs = urlparse.parse_qs(r[3])
+ for k, v in params.iteritems():
+ if v is not None:
+ qs[k] = v
+ elif qs.has_key(k):
+ del qs[k]
+ r[3] = urllib.urlencode(qs, True)
+ url = urlparse.urlunsplit(r)
+ return url
+