[Orgmode] Feature request: an org user variable for which "latex" command to run

[Scot Becker]

All,

org-latex.el currently runs the passes this to the shell when running
the `C-c C-e p' or `C-c C-e d' (process via LaTeX to PDF) commands:

"pdflatex -interaction nonstopmode %s"

But a person (like this person) might want to use a different shell
command to invoke latex, in particular LuaTeX, or XeTeX, two
unicode-aware successors to pdflatex which also output pdf files.

I use xelatex for it's unicode compatibility and font handling, and
I'd love to be able to use the speedy C-c C-e d command to get myself
from .org file to visible PDF---like all the other kids on my street.

I note that emacs already has a variable 'latex-run-command' used by
latex-mode for invoking latex with C-c C-b.  You will know better than
I the relative advantages and disadvantages to reusing it.  However
(1) it is still set to 'latex' out of the box, and so could require
user changes on some systems to get it to process to a PDF and not to
a DVI (though not on TeXLive 2008, where latex -> pdflatex). (2) It
seems a refined (i.e. complex) system:  latex-mode uses
'latex-run-command' as its 'tex-command' to process the contents of a
buffer.  What it passes to the shell is the value of
'latex-run-command' + 'tex-start-options' + 'tex-start-commands' and
finally the filename (though it can be inserted elsewhere with a '*',
not org's typical '%s'), at least that's as far as I understand it.

Perhaps we don't need to be so clever.  Maybe just an
'org-latex-to-pdf-command' variable,  with the default as above?

Thanks,
Scot