Re: org-ditaa woes

[Leo Butler]

On Tue, Oct 24 2023, Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 23/10/2023 18:18, Florin Boariu wrote:
>>
>>> sh-5.1$ flatpak-spawn --host toolbox run /usr/bin/ditaa
>>> /tmp/foo.txt -o /tmp/foo.png
>
> thanks
>
>> I really _need_ to generically execute a command.
>
> I hope, a couple of workarounds are still possible.
>
> 1. Get java command by adding bash -x (or /usr/bin/bash, or
> "/usr/bin/env bash")
>
>     flatpak-spawn --host toolbox run bash -x /usr/bin/ditaa \
>         /tmp/foo.txt -o /tmp/foo.png
>
> - set `org-babel-ditaa-java-cmd' to something like
>     "flatpak-spawn --host toolbox run /usr/bin/java",
> - set `org-ditaa-jar-path' to path to ditaa.jar reported by the
>   command above,
> - add other options to either `org-babel-header-args:ditaa' :java
>   property or to `org-babel-ditaa-java-cmd'
> - perhaps add /usr/bin/env JAVA_HOME=... and other required
>   environment variables before java binary.
>
>
> 2.
> - set `org-babel-ditaa-java-cmd' to
>   "flatpak-spawn --host toolbox run /usr/bin/ditaa".
> - set `org-ditaa-jar-option' to empty string.
> - Call of `shell-quote-argument' makes it impossible to set
>   `org-ditaa-jar-path' to empty string, so set the following variables
>   to some harmless value, e.g. "-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8" (anything added
>   through :java babel header argument):
>   + `org-ditaa-jar-path'
>   + `org-ditaa-eps-jar-path'
>
>
> I agree that it should be possible to call ditaa executable
> directly. Perhaps it is not possible because for a long time ditaa.jar
> was a part of Org mode repository (there were a lot of messages
> against dropping of jar files from the repository). It seems, nobody
> is ready to take responsibility and to become maintainer of
> ob-ditaa.el while active users have no ability to install ditaa as a
> package, so they anyway have to download .jar from upstream.
>
> I find it tedious to add "flatpak-spawn ..." to every tool used by
> Emacs. Who is the publisher of the flatpak? I would expect a directory
> with symlinks named ditaa, java, git, gcc, cpp, etc to a script line
>
> #!/bin/sh
> exec flatpak-spawn --host toolbox run /usr/bin/env "$0" "$@"
>
> (or "$(basename "$0")")
>
> mounted to flatpak runtime and added to $PATH. Perhaps another
> approach exist and it should be discussed with the packager and Emacs
> developers.

Florin,

Max is right, there are work-arounds possible, although a bit different
from what he suggests. The attached org file shows how to do what you
want using the existing ob-ditaa.el code. I have also attached the
exported html document with the image created.

Tell us if it works for the version of Org that you are using.

Leo

ob-doc-ditaa-script.org
Description: ob-doc-ditaa-script.org

Executing ditaa from a script

Table of Contents

• 1. Executing ditaa from a script

1. Executing ditaa from a script

Org assumes that ditaa is run as a java jar file. Users may need to use a script to run ditaa. This example shows how.

First, set org-babel-ditaa-java-cmd and org-ditaa-jar-option to empty strings and org-ditaa-jar-path to the script's path; here, it is /usr/bin/ditaa. This example uses setq-local to change only the values in this buffer.

#+name: hello-world-from-script.el
#+begin_src emacs-lisp :exports none :results none
(setq-local org-babel-ditaa-java-cmd ""
            org-ditaa-jar-option ""
            org-ditaa-jar-path "/usr/bin/ditaa")
#+end_src

Second, in the ditaa code-block, set the header argument :java to the empty string "". The :cmdline header argument can be used to pass command-line options to ditaa via the script.

#+name: hello-world-from-script
#+begin_src ditaa :file images/hello-world-from-script.png :java "" :cmdline -r -e UTF-8
+----------------+
|                |
| Hello World    |
| from a script! |
|                |
+----------------+
#+end_src

Author: Leo Butler

Created: 2023-10-26 Thu 10:23

Validate

hello-world-from-script.png
Description: hello-world-from-script.png