Re: A LaTeX class for Org-mode export

["Thomas S. Dye" <tsd@tsdye.com>]

Aloha Carsten,

Much appreciated.  I hope the idea of custom LaTeX classes for Org- 
mode export proves useful to the community.

I have the patch on my list of things to do.  I don't work at the  
speeds you folks attain so the patch will probably seem slow in coming.

All the best,
Tom


On Oct 16, 2010, at 7:58 PM, Carsten Dominik wrote:

> Hi Tom,
>
> On Oct 16, 2010, at 7:08 PM, Thomas S. Dye wrote:
>
>> Aloha Carsten,
>>
>> Thanks for your kind words.  I'm having fun with org-article.cls  
>> and am happy to have Org support in the ways that you mention.
>
> Great.  Would you like to make me a patch which does all this?
> If you want, you can also create a new directory in contrib.
> You can also have write permission for the git repo in order
> to install updates for this.
>
>>
>> Right now I think the class's main contribution is that it eases  
>> configuration of LaTeX export.
>>
>> For the future (perhaps distant), I'm hoping org-article.cls will  
>> make the case that Org should identify other semantic elements in  
>> LaTeX export, leaving the details of their representation to the  
>> LaTeX class.
>>
>> For example:
>>
>> paths: Paths are frequently quite long and when they don't include  
>> spaces LaTeX can have a difficult time breaking them at the end of  
>> a line.  There is a LaTeX package, url.sty, that handles this.  I  
>> believe that the hyperref package loads url.sty for this  
>> functionality, so it is available to the LaTeX exporter with the  
>> current defaults.  If paths were identified in the export,
>> e.g., \org-path{/long/path/to/my/file/deep/in/the/directory/tree},
>> then the LaTeX class could typeset this with either the \url{}  
>> command (if hyperref wasn't being used), with \nolinkurl{} (if  
>> hyperref was being used), or some other way appropriate to the class.
>>
>> lists: In addition to compact lists (I agree with you that they are  
>> an improvement over the standard LaTeX lists), it should be  
>> possible to typeset lists inside paragraphs.  I'm not certain how  
>> this might be handled in Org-mode, perhaps an #+property or other  
>> entity that could be set on a list-specific basis.  The LaTeX  
>> paralist package that is responsible for the compact lists does a  
>> good job typesetting lists in paragraphs, as well.
>>
>> #+results:  I'm integrating Eric Fraga's GANTT chart code, which  
>> generates the LaTeX code to create a high quality graphic using an  
>> Org-mode table as input.  Currently, the #+results: of Eric's code  
>> aren't exported unless I add a blank line between the #+results:  
>> and #+BEGIN_LaTeX lines.  If, instead, the results block were  
>> exported inside a LaTeX environment, say \begin{org-results}  
>> \end{org-results}, then org-article.cls (or any other LaTeX class)  
>> could define an environment to typeset the results appropriately.   
>> With the blank line inserted, LaTeX export yields a listing of the  
>> LaTeX code, which is all well and good, but it doesn't get set off  
>> *as a result*, which might be useful to distinguish it from regular  
>> source code blocks in the Org-mode file.
>>
>> I'm not advocating for any specific changes here.  I'm just trying  
>> to indicate a possibly useful development path for Org-mode LaTeX  
>> export in tandem with custom LaTeX classes.
>
> I will be very interested to see what else you come up with.
>
> Cheers
>
> - Carsten
>
>>
>> All the best,
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> On Oct 15, 2010, at 7:57 PM, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hi Thomas,
>>>
>>> Dan just made me look again at this thread, which I had not yet
>>> studied closely.
>>>
>>> I think you have created something very useful indeed.  I love
>>> the compact lists, and I am sure there is a lot more I would use.
>>> So I am wondering:  What can Org do to support and integrate this
>>> class?  I can think of a couple of things:
>>>
>>> - distribute it in contrib
>>> - advertise it in the manual
>>> - have it as one of the default classes in org-export-latex-classes
>>>
>>> But maybe you have other ideas?
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> - Carsten
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sep 14, 2010, at 10:37 PM, Thomas S. Dye wrote:
>>>
>>>> Aloha all,
>>>>
>>>> I'd like to draw your attention to a LaTeX class that I put  
>>>> together in response to posts here about configuring the output  
>>>> of the LaTeX exporter.  The class supports all of the Org-mode  
>>>> LaTeX default packages.  It supports the standard LaTeX article  
>>>> class and the KOMA-script scrartcl class and provides several  
>>>> choices of fonts.  In addition, it  includes facilities to apply  
>>>> microtypographic adjustments to suitable fonts, set the line  
>>>> spacing of the document to double space, set lists more compactly  
>>>> than the standard LaTeX article.cls, and typeset source code  
>>>> listings, optionally with color.
>>>>
>>>> The documentation that should appear shortly in the Babel/Uses  
>>>> section of Worg includes two examples that illustrate use of the  
>>>> class.  The first uses the standard LaTeX article class and  
>>>> Times, Helvetica, and Courier fonts with a 12 point base size to  
>>>> typeset the literate program on 8.5 x 11 in. paper, with colored  
>>>> source code listings and microtypographic adjustments.
>>>>
>>>>> #+LaTeX_CLASS: org-article-subsubsection
>>>>> #+LaTeX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [article,letterpaper,times, 
>>>>> 12pt,listings,color,microtype]
>>>>
>>>> The second uses the KOMA-script scrartcl class and Utopia, Bera,  
>>>> and Inconsolata fonts with a 10 point base size to typeset the  
>>>> literate program on 5.8 x 8.3 in. paper in landscape mode, also  
>>>> with colored source code listings and microtypographic  
>>>> adjustments.  In addition, lists are set tighter than with the  
>>>> standard LaTeX article class.
>>>>
>>>>> #+LaTeX_CLASS: org-article-subsubsection
>>>>> #+LaTeX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [koma,a5paper,landscape,utopia, 
>>>>> 10pt,listings,color,microtype,paralist]
>>>>
>>>> The project is hosted at GitHub:
>>>> http://github.com/tsdye/org-article
>>>>
>>>> All the best,
>>>> Tom
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>>>
>>
>