If you read my earlier posts, you will see that this is exactly what I have been suggesting all along.
I did. I thought it was a bit confused though, and was trying to simplify the suggestion. My concerns over the discussions above were mostly around this kind of thing:
Beginner Level: When you install MC for the first time, it creates somewhere a list of prefix words that is for the first time filled with the list of definite articles appropriate to the language that the user selects. I think probably the initial list would normally also include the English articles The and A. (This is an "automatic install and forget" process).
Intermediate Level: If you want to modify the list of prefix words, then somewhere in MC Options there is an edit box where you can add or delete words to/from the list. Probably this edit box shall also have a "Return to the defaults for my language" button. (This is a "self explanatory options dialog" process).
Advanced Level: If you have so modified the list of prefix words, and you are troubled by schizophrenic cases like Die Fledermaus & Die Hard, then you can solve them by editing the tags to use a regular space in the first case, and a non breaking space in the second. (This is admittedly a "nerdy process requiring a Wiki entry to explain it", but you get this possibility anyway for free, and there is no pressure on you to use it.)
This stuff. I don't think it needs to be anywhere near so complex. All you need are those two things:
1. If Ignore Articles is enabled, it uses your installed language, and only your installed language, or English if it doesn't have "pre-set" lists for your language (Estonian or whatever). It doesn't actually show you this list, or let you edit it, it just works like it does now (on/off). I'd guess that for more than 90% of users, this will be all that is needed.
2. If you want to
extend this list (so, to include Italian articles even though you have English selected as your language), then there is an "Also Ignore" box where you can add comma-delimited
additions to the default by-language list.
I think that gets you to 98% of possible use-cases, and you don't need to care about the other edge-cases.
It would have the limitation that there would be no way to
exclude articles from the default-language list, other than to turn the whole thing off, but that's what I'm calling an extreme edge-case. The benefit is that you do not need to have any of the "reset to defaults" UI glop though. The comma-delimited list would only be
additive to what happens automatically by default (similar to how it worked before this change, but language-specific where possible). To "reset" it, you'd just empty it.
That would be, IMHO, much more easily grepped by your average user, and less likely to get badly broken. Plus, it gives you the flexibility to add whatever articles you'd like to the list (Mr, Mrs, Sir, Das, Les, etc, etc, etc).