[proposal] better documentation around syntax highlighting Org-Mode code blocks when exporting to LaTeX

[proposal] better documentation around syntax highlighting Org-Mode code blocks when exporting to LaTeX

[Randomcoder]

Hi,

While writing technical documents, as a programmer and an Org-Mode user,
for me it's important to have ways to syntax highlight code blocks when
exporting them to LaTeX.

While I am aware of the customizations that need to be done
to Org-Mode's configuration in order to get that to work, in
particular customizing these variables(see [1] for details):

* org-latex-listings
* org-latex-custom-lang-environments
* org-latex-minted-options

and having tried them, I got this working for one document, but it
really felt like a lot of trial-and-error and a lot of room for error
on my side as a user.

Although this is Org-Mode and it is supposed to be very customizable
(like Emacs is), I still believe the documentation and the implementation
can be improved on this.

I think there's even reason to believe that this should be working out
of the box. The only reason I see for this not being the default setting
is to not add pygments [2] as a dependency. Still, I think it should be
much easier for me as a user to spend less time getting it to work.

I welcome any feedback on this.

Thank you for taking the time to read my proposal.


[1] http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-latex-export.html#sec-12-2
[2] http://pygments.org/

Re: [proposal] better documentation around syntax highlighting Org-Mode code blocks when exporting to LaTeX

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

Randomcoder <randomcoder1@gmail.com> writes:

> While writing technical documents, as a programmer and an Org-Mode user,
> for me it's important to have ways to syntax highlight code blocks when
> exporting them to LaTeX.
>
> While I am aware of the customizations that need to be done
> to Org-Mode's configuration in order to get that to work, in
> particular customizing these variables(see [1] for details):
>
> * org-latex-listings
> * org-latex-custom-lang-environments
> * org-latex-minted-options

Did you read `org-latex-listings' docstring? If so, what do you think is
missing or not clear enough?

> and having tried them, I got this working for one document, but it
> really felt like a lot of trial-and-error and a lot of room for error
> on my side as a user.
>
> Although this is Org-Mode and it is supposed to be very customizable
> (like Emacs is), I still believe the documentation and the implementation
> can be improved on this.

What do you suggest, concretely?

> I think there's even reason to believe that this should be working out
> of the box.

I think the default value is right. Any other value requires the user
additional steps (requiring "listings" package or even adding pygments
as a dependency)


Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou