[Orgmode] Re: How to get pretty printed source code in PDFLaTeX

[Dan Davison]

Sébastien Vauban <address@hidden>
writes:

> Hi Dan,
>
> Dan Davison wrote:
>> Sébastien Vauban 
>> <wxhgmqzgwmuf-geNee64TY+gS+FvcfC7Uqw-XMD5yJDbdMSQIYZ4X/address@hidden> 
>> writes:
>>> Sebastian Rose wrote:
>>>> Dan Davison <address@hidden> writes:
>>>>> Can you point me to an example that shows how to make source code in
>>>>> latex look (almost) as nice as html?
>>>>
>>>> That is supposed to work with the `listings' package. I havent tried that
>>>> yet.
>>>
>>> If I understand you right, here's such an example you're after:
>>>
>>> * Much better code

[...]

>>> I've put the PDF (for easy access) onto my Web site:
>>>
>>> http://www.mygooglest.com/sva/ECM-Listings.pdf
>>
>> Wow, that's really nice. Thanks for sharing that.
>
> I really thought that you used such a thing for a long time, having done so
> much for Org-Babel. Maybe you were more interested by the execution stuff,
> rather than its printing? For me, the opposite: I was much interested by the
> printing, now by accessing all the power of Babel.

You're probably right that I should have looked into it. But seeing as
the HTML export of code is so nice and requred no configuration, I never
got round to it. Although I did write my Ph.D. in latex, and I am
enjoying using the listings package for formatting pseudocode in a paper
which I'm supposed to be writing, I do need to become better friends
with latex, it's true.

>> I think we should aim to get to a point where org-mode can produce such
>> nicely formatted source code out-of-the-box.
>
> I share your point. I'm willing to participate, or even begin, such a page on
> Worg, with the above info.
>
>> Maybe we could even make latex inherit the colours and fonts that emacs is
>> currently using for source code mark up?
>
> For sure, that'd be nice. You mean the way htmlize works, and keeps my colors,
> right?
>
> Dunno what it implies for Org-LaTeX... Generating your own class 
> customization,
> and having it loaded by default (in the list of LaTeX packages)?

Usage of listings is controlled by the variable
`org-export-latex-listings', so the simplest start would be: if that is
non-nil then code like yours could be inserted into the latex output.

>
>> I was going to suggest doing this with listings but then came across minted,
>> and I wonder whether that's even more suitable? (See the other post I just
>> made.)
>
> Never heard about it before, while I'm trying to follow info about TeX as
> well.
>
> I'm very impressed by the quality and reaction time of
> french.computers.text.tex. So, I decided to ask them what they thought about
> Listings vs Minted.

,----
| "sur un post de Dan Davison parlant d'un nouveau paquet qui 
| serait mieux que Listings."
`----

Hey, I never said that! :) 

I said it might be better *for export of code from org-mode*. But
seriously, no problem, in addition to my character assassination, from
what I could make out they made lots of good points. Although I will
watch out now if I come across any francophones who look like they might
be tex enthusiasts (wouldn't one always...)

What I meant is that seeing as org-users who set
`org-export-latex-listings' get black and white code with ugly fonts by
default, there are two improvement options for us:

1. we work on incorporating nice listings configuration into org mode so
   that Org users get nice colours and fonts by default
2. we add an option to allow Org users to use the minted package, which
   gives them nice colours and fonts automatically.

(2) was easy and so I did it straight away. And (1) is still something
we want to do, not least because listings is in standard latex
distributions and doesn't have an extra python requirement. Assuming
that minted/pygments are stable software that will be around for a
while, I would vote for both options ultimately being available in
org-mode.

>
> See on 
> [[http://groups.google.com/groups/search?as_umsgid%3D87lj8gp4rr.fsf%40mundaneum.com][Email
>  from Sébastien Vauban: Listings vs Minted]]
>
> What's interesting is that 2 brilliant people of that list responded on that.
> I could try to translate the whole, but there already is a lot. Just
> highlighting that they don't trust that much all the facts that have been used
> against Listings (and prove what they say): about Utf-8, or the number of
> languages, etc.
>
> They agree with one inconvenient of Listings: the fact that, by default, it
> uses bad settings (like no color, and proportional font).
>
> On the other hand, they don't like implying the use of an external language to
> LaTeX. Impacts on shell-escape.
>
> The discussion is going on. I'll keep you posted.
>
> For sure, the objective of getting better out-of-the-box is a goal we can
> reach.

Excellent, I think that will be a good addition to org-mode.

Dan

>
> Best regards,
>   Seb