sub my_sort {
  my ($c,$d,$type) = @_;
  if ($c =~ /^index/) {
    return -1;
  }
  elsif ($d =~ /^index/) {
    return 1;
  }
  else {
    if ($c =~ /^ssi/) {
      return -1;
    }
    elsif ($d =~ /^ssi/) {
      return 1;
    }
    else {
      if ($type =~ /article/) {
        #written mostly by kent/n in #perl on freenode.
        for ($c, $d) {
          s/<.+?>//g;
          s/\s*\b(A|a|An|an|The|the)(_|\s)//xi;
          decode_entities($_);
        }
        $c = ucfirst($c) if $c =~ /^\l./;
        $d = ucfirst($d) if $d =~ /^\l./;
        $c =~ s/\B([A-Z])/\L$1/g;
        $d =~ s/\B([A-Z])/\L$1/g;
        if ($c =~ /^\d+$/ and $d =~ /^\d+$/) {
          return $c <=> $d;
        }
        else {
          return $c cmp $d;
        }
      }
      elsif ($type =~ /name/) {
        for ($c,$d) {
          s/\|.+$//;
          $_ = join(' ', (reverse split(/(?:_|\s)(?=[^_\s]+$)/, $_,2))
+) if $_ !~ /^_/;
          s/^_//;
          s/^(A|a|An|an|The|the)(_|\s)//;
          $_ = lc;
        }
        return $c cmp $d;
      }
      else {
        die(qq($type is not valid in the sort.));
      }
    }
  }
}
[download]

my_sort strips off articles and alphabetizes numbers as numbers (2100 AFTER 22). The index and ssi sorting are there until I finally wipe out all .ssi files from my site, which may never happen since I'm low on imagination for coding those pages. It also alphabetizes names last name then first name. This was written a long time ago with help.