Re: suggestion to change default org-latex-pdf-process to latexmk

[Tim Cross]

Colin Baxter <m43cap@yandex.com> writes:

>>>>>> Bruce D'Arcus <bdarcus@gmail.com> writes:
>
>     > On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 4:28 AM Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> wrote:
>     >> The more I think about it, I think the best solution would be to
>     >> update the code which sets the default and have it check for
>     >> latexmk. If it is found, set it as the default and if it is not
>     >> found, set the existing default. This would have minimum impact
>     >> on users and allow those who have installed latexmk to get the
>     >> benefits while not forcing those who don't need it to install it.
>
>     > If this were possible, I agree it would be the best approach.
>
>     > Bruce
>
> What effect is this likely to have on people who have specified latexmk?
> For example, I have
>
> #+begin_src elisp
> (setq org-latex-pdf-process '("latexmk -outdir=%o -f %f"))
> (setq org-latex-compiler "pdflatex")
> #+end_src
>
> I assume any change will have no effect, but is this correct?
>

Correct. Changing any default setting has no impact on anyone who sets
the value to a non-default value.

If the default is changed to be latexmk if latexmk is installed and set
it to the existing default if not will only impact users who have
latexmk installed, but have not configured org-latex-pdf-process to use
it. For those who do not have it installed, it would have no effect.

If on the other hand we just change the default to be latexmk, it will
break org for anyone who does not have latexmk installed and who have
not set org-latex-pdf-program until they install latexmk. For new users,
it means needing to install latexmk (an optional package on some systems
and already installed on others).

As you can call elisp to initialise a variable, it would not be
difficult to add initialising code for org-latex-pdf-program which first
checks to see if latexmk is in the exec patch and if it is, set
org-latex-pdf-program accordingly and if it is not, set the current
default. I think this would have the least impact on all users.



-- 
Tim Cross