Problem with sectioning function for LaTeX export

Problem with sectioning function for LaTeX export

[Sebastian Hofer]

Hi all,
I'm trying to write my own sectioning function for latex export of my 
CV. What it does is to read out some property of the given headline and 
pass it to a latex command:

(defun my-org-cv-sectioning (lvl heading)
   (let ((year)
         (formatlist)
         (cleanheading (substring-no-properties heading 1)))
     (with-current-buffer (org-find-base-buffer-visiting "cv.org")
       (let ((headingpoint (find-custom-id cleanheading)))
         (if headingpoint
             (progn
               (goto-char headingpoint)
               (setq year (org-entry-get nil "YEAR"))))))
     (setq formatlist (nth (- 1 lvl) my-org-cv-sectioning-list))
     (list cleanheading
           (format (car formatlist) (if year year "") cleanheading)
           (format (car (cdr formatlist)) (if year year "") cleanheading))))

The function find-custom-id returns the point of the heading, 
my-org-cv-sectioning list contains the customized latex commands. As you 
may see, I'm an elisp newbie, so excuse the coding style, or even 
better, make suggestions for improvements! There might be a much nicer 
way to read out the wanted properties (also cf. point 2 below), so if 
you have any suggestions on that, I would be glad to hear them!

Anyway, there are currently two problems:

- The function reads out the properties correctly, but the export 
command throws an error. So I guess I'm not getting the format of the 
output right, but I can't really make sense of the description in the 
org-export-latex-classes docstring. Currently the function is returning 
something like this: ("Heading" ("\section[year]{Heading}" 
"\section*[year]{Heading}")). Isn't this what it's supposed to look 
like? The error message is the following:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil)
   format(nil "Heading" "")
   org-export-latex-subcontent(<snipped>)
   org-export-latex-sub(<snipped>)
   org-export-latex-global(((<snipped>))))
   org-export-as-latex(nil nil nil "*Org LaTeX Export*")
   org-export-as-latex-to-buffer(nil)
   call-interactively(org-export-as-latex-to-buffer)
   org-export(nil)
   call-interactively(org-export nil nil)

- As you can see I am using org-find-base-buffer-visiting find the 
buffer of the org file, but of course its argument can't stay hardcoded 
like this. I could also use the org mapping function, but still I would 
need filename. Can someone give me a hint how to solve this in a nice way?

Thanks for any help and thanks to Carsten for his incredible work! I 
keep getting surprised be the capabilities of org-mode almost every day.
Cheers, Sebastian

Re: Problem with sectioning function for LaTeX export

[Carsten Dominik]

On Apr 18, 2010, at 12:05 PM, Sebastian Hofer wrote:

> Hi all,
> I'm trying to write my own sectioning function for latex export of  
> my CV. What it does is to read out some property of the given  
> headline and pass it to a latex command:
>
> (defun my-org-cv-sectioning (lvl heading)
>  (let ((year)
>        (formatlist)
>        (cleanheading (substring-no-properties heading 1)))
>    (with-current-buffer (org-find-base-buffer-visiting "cv.org")
>      (let ((headingpoint (find-custom-id cleanheading)))
>        (if headingpoint
>            (progn
>              (goto-char headingpoint)
>              (setq year (org-entry-get nil "YEAR"))))))
>    (setq formatlist (nth (- 1 lvl) my-org-cv-sectioning-list))
>    (list cleanheading
>          (format (car formatlist) (if year year "") cleanheading)
>          (format (car (cdr formatlist)) (if year year "")  
> cleanheading))))
>
> The function find-custom-id returns the point of the heading, my-org- 
> cv-sectioning list contains the customized latex commands. As you  
> may see, I'm an elisp newbie, so excuse the coding style, or even  
> better, make suggestions for improvements! There might be a much  
> nicer way to read out the wanted properties (also cf. point 2  
> below), so if you have any suggestions on that, I would be glad to  
> hear them!
>
> Anyway, there are currently two problems:
>
> - The function reads out the properties correctly, but the export  
> command throws an error. So I guess I'm not getting the format of  
> the output right, but I can't really make sense of the description  
> in the org-export-latex-classes docstring. Currently the function is  
> returning something like this: ("Heading" ("\section[year]{Heading}"  
> "\section*[year]{Heading}")). Isn't this what it's supposed to look  
> like? The error message is the following:

I think it must be

("Heading" "\section[year]{%s}" "\section*[year]{%s}")

Note the %s for the heading, and also it i just one flat list of 3  
items.

And yes, this is not too well documented.

>
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil)
>  format(nil "Heading" "")
>  org-export-latex-subcontent(<snipped>)
>  org-export-latex-sub(<snipped>)
>  org-export-latex-global(((<snipped>))))
>  org-export-as-latex(nil nil nil "*Org LaTeX Export*")
>  org-export-as-latex-to-buffer(nil)
>  call-interactively(org-export-as-latex-to-buffer)
>  org-export(nil)
>  call-interactively(org-export nil nil)
>
> - As you can see I am using org-find-base-buffer-visiting find the  
> buffer of the org file, but of course its argument can't stay  
> hardcoded like this. I could also use the org mapping function, but  
> still I would need filename. Can someone give me a hint how to solve  
> this in a nice way?

Use
    (org-find-base-buffer-visiting org-current-export-file)

HTH

- Carsten

Re: Problem with sectioning function for LaTeX export

[Sebastian Hofer]

Hi Carsten,
thanks for your reply!

At Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:44:07 +0200,
Carsten Dominik wrote:
> I think it must be
> 
> ("Heading" "\section[year]{%s}" "\section*[year]{%s}")
> 
> Note the %s for the heading, and also it i just one flat list of 3  
> items.
> 
> And yes, this is not too well documented. 

I tried that actually but to no avail. I tracked down the problem to the following code in org-latex.el

(if (consp (cdr sec))
    (setq start (nth (if num 0 2) sec)
	  end (nth (if num 1 3) sec))
  (setq start (if num (car sec) (cdr sec))))

For a flat list as you suggested sec is ("\section[year]{%s}" "\section*[year]{%s}"). The thing is that then (consp (cdr sec)) evaluates to true, which I think is not the supposed behaviour. Replacing (cdr sec) by (cadr sec) would fix this. Is this a bug or just me being too stupid?

On another subject: Wouldn't it be nice if the properties of the current headline would be accessible by the sectioning function? I think that would proof very powerful to create customized export classes (together with customized latex commands). And I guess it would be quite easy to implement, right?

Anyway, thanks for your help (and of course for your great work on org-mode, I really love it!)
Sebastian

Re: Problem with sectioning function for LaTeX export

[Sebastian Hofer]

Oh, nevermind. I figured it out,
(cons Heading (cons "\section[year]{%s}" "\section*[year]{%s}"))
solves the problem. I guess I really need to learn more about the 
different types of sequences in lisp. Sorry for that.

Cheers, Sebastian

On 29.04.10 14:10 Uhr, Sebastian Hofer wrote:
> Hi Carsten,
> thanks for your reply!
>
> At Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:44:07 +0200,
> Carsten Dominik wrote:
>> I think it must be
>>
>> ("Heading" "\section[year]{%s}" "\section*[year]{%s}")
>>
>> Note the %s for the heading, and also it i just one flat list of 3
>> items.
>>
>> And yes, this is not too well documented.
>
> I tried that actually but to no avail. I tracked down the problem to the following code in org-latex.el
>
> (if (consp (cdr sec))
>      (setq start (nth (if num 0 2) sec)
> 	  end (nth (if num 1 3) sec))
>    (setq start (if num (car sec) (cdr sec))))
>
> For a flat list as you suggested sec is ("\section[year]{%s}" "\section*[year]{%s}"). The thing is that then (consp (cdr sec)) evaluates to true, which I think is not the supposed behaviour. Replacing (cdr sec) by (cadr sec) would fix this. Is this a bug or just me being too stupid?
>
> On another subject: Wouldn't it be nice if the properties of the current headline would be accessible by the sectioning function? I think that would proof very powerful to create customized export classes (together with customized latex commands). And I guess it would be quite easy to implement, right?
>
> Anyway, thanks for your help (and of course for your great work on org-mode, I really love it!)
> Sebastian
>
>
>
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