[BUG] Org citations do not render in tables [9.5.5 (9.5.5-g8ef620 @ /home/stas/.emacs.d/straight/build/org/)]

[BUG] Org citations do not render in tables [9.5.5 (9.5.5-g8ef620 @ /home/stas/.emacs.d/straight/build/org/)]

[Stanislav Vlasov]

Dear org community,

It seems that there is a bug (or a thing that was not yet implemented) with rendering tables that contain org-mode citations (i.e., [cite:@paper]) from source block results. Here is an example:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results table replace
"Prior research [cite:@paper] suggests that..."
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| Prior research suggests that... |

The expected outcome should be:

#+RESULTS:
| Prior research [cite:@paper] suggests that... |

It seems that this does not depend on src language (I have also tried with R and got the same issue).

I have already asked it on StackExchange (https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/75270) and user 'Simka' pointed out that the cause of this issue is somewhere in `orgtbl-to-generic' and it is about undefined export backend for citations.


Kind regards,
Stas
------------------------------------------------------------------------



Emacs  : GNU Emacs 28.2 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.34, cairo version 1.17.6)
 of 2022-09-12
Package: Org mode version 9.5.5 (9.5.5-g8ef620 @ /home/stas/.emacs.d/straight/build/org/)

Re: [BUG] Org citations do not render in tables [9.5.5 (9.5.5-g8ef620 @ /home/stas/.emacs.d/straight/build/org/)]

[Ihor Radchenko]

Stanislav Vlasov <S.Vlasov@tilburguniversity.edu> writes:

> #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results table replace
> "Prior research [cite:@paper] suggests that..."
> #+END_SRC
>
> #+RESULTS:
> | Prior research suggests that... |
>
> The expected outcome should be:
>
> #+RESULTS:
> | Prior research [cite:@paper] suggests that... |
>
> It seems that this does not depend on src language (I have also tried with R and got the same issue).

Confirmed.

The problem is rather fundamental one.

Citation processing is supposed to be independent from the export
backends. However, `orgtbl-to-generic' is bypassing the citation
processing and calls `org-export-data-with-backend` directly with ox-org
backend not handling citation objects.

There are multiple issues revealed here:
1. ox.el currently treats missing transcoder info as "export all the
   unknown elements/objects and empty strings" - this is rather
   forward-incompatible design that may catch users by surprise when Org
   adds new syntax elements (as it happened here, with citations)

   May ox.el treat missing transcoders as `identity' and only export
   empty string when transcoder is set to nil explicitly?

2. Does it even make sense to apply the default oc-basic when exporting
   to org? Should we instead introduce something like oc-identity that
   does nothing and simply leaves the citations in the original Org
   syntax, later possibly processed by the specific export backend?
   Then, we can use this oc-identity in the default value of
   `org-cite-export-processors': (org identity)?

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>

Re: [BUG] Org citations do not render in tables [9.5.5 (9.5.5-g8ef620 @ /home/stas/.emacs.d/straight/build/org/)]

[Ihor Radchenko]

Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net> writes:

> Stanislav Vlasov <S.Vlasov@tilburguniversity.edu> writes:
>
>> #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results table replace
>> "Prior research [cite:@paper] suggests that..."
>> #+END_SRC
>>
>> #+RESULTS:
>> | Prior research suggests that... |
>>
>> The expected outcome should be:
>>
>> #+RESULTS:
>> | Prior research [cite:@paper] suggests that... |
>>
>> It seems that this does not depend on src language (I have also tried with R and got the same issue).
>
> Confirmed.
>
> The problem is rather fundamental one.

Fixed, on main.
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git/commit/?id=b8ee1315a

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>