--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/textshaper/whitespace.py	Sat Oct 05 09:50:34 2013 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+"""
+text shaping functionality having to do with whitespace
+"""
+
+__all__ = ['normalize']
+
+def normalize(text, separator=None, joiner=None):
+    """
+    strips text and
+    replace multiple whitespace occurance with single occurance
+    """
+    if joiner is None:
+        joiner = ' ' if separator is None else separator
+    return joiner.join(text.strip().split(separator))