Re: [PATCH] lisp/org-table.el: Use booktabs on org-table-export

[Ihor Radchenko]

Pride Allman <allmanpride@gmail.com> writes:

> This is my first patch so hopefully I followed the instructions correctly,

Thanks for the patch! Patches are always welcome, though I do not fully
agree with the approach you used in this particular one.

> While using ~org-table-export~ on a table directly even with
> ~org-latex-tables-booktabs~ set to ~t~, it exports a normal table instead
> of booktabs table. But on the same situation, if you export the whole
> buffer the table will be exported according to booktabs.

I also find this discrepancy awkward.

Normally, Org export options are chosen according to
org-export-options-alist (see the docstring) and the equivalent
variables in specific export backend (see org-export-define-backend
'latex in ox-latex.el).

However, when you look into orgtbl-to-latex, orgtbl-to-html,
orgtbl-to-texinfo, and orgtbl-to-unicode, they all overwrite certain
export settings by force. Sometimes, even not leaving the user an option
to choose. All those (list :option value ...) are force-overwriting the
_global_ export defaults (see orgtbl-to-latex calling orgtbl-to-generic
that calls org-export-get-environment with third argument) , including
:latex-tables-booktabs. This is by design.

While I do not like the current design, your patch will only create even
more inconsistencies; The same problem will remain for other
force-overwritten options.

Best,
Ihor