Maybe I am missing something, what would the utility of #+toc: figures be? Is it only for export?

I would make a link:  [[elisp:org-list-of-figures]] where org-list-of-figures is an emacs-lisp function that would parse the buffer and present you with a list of clickable links to the figures. You could alternatively make this a new org-link, so you could also specify how it exports, eg.

[[lof:click-me][List of Figures]]

That would be pure org-markup, and make org more useful, and it would also happen to support LaTeX export too. I guess you would recognize figures as extensions in the file links.


John

-----------------------------------
John Kitchin
Associate Professor
Doherty Hall A207F
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-7803
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu



On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Thomas S. Dye <tsd@tsdye.com> wrote:
Aloha Nicolas,

Nicolas Goaziou <n.goaziou@gmail.com> writes:

> Hello,
>
> tsd@tsdye.com (Thomas S. Dye) writes:
>
>> I can imagine that a list of figures is a difficult problem in some
>> other back-ends.  However, its absence in LaTeX export seems unusual.
>
> Org doesn't cover all LaTeX facilities. There are #+LATEX:
> and #+BEGIN_LATEX...#+END_LATEX to fill the gap.
>
>> Would it make sense to have this work as expected for LaTeX export (and
>> perhaps other back-ends where it does make sense)
>
> We can start to discuss what a good implementation could be for major
> back-ends. But implementing it for LaTeX only is, IMO, not worth the
> trouble:
>
>   #+toc: figures
>
> vs.
>
>   #+latex: \listoffigures

AFAICT the new exporter works flawlessly.  I'm confident that it will
let me produce LaTeX to any practical specification.

My original query came about because I was trying to write Org markup
and *not* drop down to LaTeX.  In this context--Org as a lightweight
markup language--the possibility of creating all but one of the
"lists-of" with #+TOC: seems like the markup language core is missing a
piece.

I look forward to the discussion of implementations for the major
back-ends. Let me know if I can help in any way.

All the best,
Tom

--
Thomas S. Dye
http://www.tsdye.com