+*[also withdrawn in favour of sort-package --s]*
+
+>> I wonder if IkiWiki would benefit from the concept of a "sortspec", like a [[ikiwiki/PageSpec]] but dedicated to sorting lists of pages rather than defining lists of pages? Rather than defining a sort-hook, define a SortSpec class, and enable people to add their own sort methods as functions defined inside that class, similarly to the way they can add their own pagespec definitions. --[[KathrynAndersen]]
+
+>>> [[!template id=gitbranch branch=smcv/ready/sort-package author="[[Simon_McVittie|smcv]]"]]
+>>> I'd be inclined to think that's overkill, but it wasn't very hard to
+>>> implement, and in a way is more elegant. I set it up so sort mechanisms
+>>> share the `IkiWiki::PageSpec` package, but with a `cmp_` prefix. Gitweb:
+>>> <http://git.pseudorandom.co.uk/smcv/ikiwiki.git?a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/sort-package>
+
+>>>> I agree it seems more elegant, so I have focused on it.
+>>>>
+>>>> I don't know about reusing `IkiWiki::PageSpec` for this.
+>>>> --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>> Fair enough, `IkiWiki::SortSpec::cmp_foo` would be just
+>>>>> as easy, or `IkiWiki::Sorting::cmp_foo` if you don't like
+>>>>> introducing "sort spec" in the API. I took a cue from
+>>>>> [[ikiwiki/pagespec/sorting]] being a subpage of
+>>>>> [[ikiwiki/pagespec]], and decided that yes, sorting is
+>>>>> a bit like a pagespec :-) Which name would you prefer? --s
+
+>>>>>> `SortSpec` --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>>>> [[Done]]. --s
+
+>>>> I would be inclined to drop the `check_` stuff. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>> It basically exists to support `title_natural`, to avoid
+>>>>> firing up the whole import mechanism on every `cmp`
+>>>>> (although I suppose that could just be a call to a
+>>>>> memoized helper function). It also lets sort specs that
+>>>>> *must* have a parameter, like
+>>>>> [[field|plugins/contrib/field/discussion]], fail early
+>>>>> (again, not so valuable).
+>>>>>
+>>>>>> AFAIK, `use foo` has very low overhead when the module is already
+>>>>>> loaded. There could be some evalation overhead in `eval q{use foo}`,
+>>>>>> if so it would be worth addressing across the whole codebase.
+>>>>>> --[[Joey]]
+>>>>>>
+>>>>>>> check_cmp_foo now dropped. --s
+>>>>>
+>>>>> The former function could be achieved at a small
+>>>>> compatibility cost by putting `title_natural` in a new
+>>>>> `sortnatural` plugin (that fails to load if you don't
+>>>>> have `title_natural`), if you'd prefer - that's what would
+>>>>> have happened if `title_natural` was written after this
+>>>>> code had been merged, I suspect. Would you prefer this? --s
+
+>>>>>> Yes! (Assuming it does not make sense to support
+>>>>>> natural order sort of other keys than the title, at least..)
+>>>>>> --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>>>> Done. I added some NEWS.Debian for it, too. --s
+
+>>>> Wouldn't it make sense to have `meta(title)` instead
+>>>> of `meta_title`? --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>> Yes, you're right. I added parameters to support `field`,
+>>>>> and didn't think about making `meta` use them too.
+>>>>> However, `title` does need a special case to make it
+>>>>> default to the basename instead of the empty string.
+>>>>>
+>>>>> Another special case for `title` is to use `titlesort`
+>>>>> first (the name `titlesort` is derived from Ogg/FLAC
+>>>>> tags, which can have `titlesort` and `artistsort`).
+>>>>> I could easily extend that to other metas, though;
+>>>>> in fact, for e.g. book lists it would be nice for
+>>>>> `field(bookauthor)` to behave similarly, so you can
+>>>>> display "Douglas Adams" but sort by "Adams, Douglas".
+>>>>>
+>>>>> `meta_title` is also meant to be a prototype of how
+>>>>> `sort=title` could behave in 4.0 or something - sorting
+>>>>> by page name (which usually sorts in approximately the
+>>>>> same place as the meta-title, but occasionally not), while
+>>>>> displaying meta-titles, does look quite odd. --s
+
+>>>>>> Agreed. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>>>> I've implemented meta(title). meta(author) also has the
+>>>>>>> `sortas` special case; meta(updated) and meta(date)
+>>>>>>> should also work how you'd expect them to (but they're
+>>>>>>> earliest-first, unlike age). --s
+
+>>>> As I read the regexp in `cmpspec_translate`, the "command"
+>>>> is required to have params. They should be optional,
+>>>> to match the documentation and because most sort methods
+>>>> do not need parameters. --[[Joey]]
+
+>>>>> No, `$2` is either `\w+\([^\)]*\)` or `[^\s]+` (with the
+>>>>> latter causing an error later if it doesn't also match `\w+`).
+>>>>> This branch doesn't add any parameterized sort methods,
+>>>>> in fact, although I did provide one on
+>>>>> [[field's_discussion_page|plugins/contrib/report/discussion]]. --s