(Lua filters) Is it possible to add sub-elements to a figure without having a minipage autogenerated?

[TickStop]

I am currently working on a filter but figures seem to be somewhat of an issue. If i try to add anything that is not another figure (which then becomes a subfigure), it is wrapped inside a minipage.

Here is an example snippet of my filter:

function count(t)
    local count = 0
    for _ in pairs(t) do count = count + 1 end
    return count
end

function multiRowFigure(images, caption, maxInRow)
    if maxInRow == nil then maxInRow = 3 end
    local numImages = count(images)
    if maxInRow > numImages then maxInRow = numImages end
    local items = {}
    for i,img in pairs(images) do
        table.insert(items, pandoc.Figure(img, {img.caption}))
        if i % maxInRow == 0 and i ~= numImages then
            table.insert(items, pandoc.RawBlock("latex", "\n\\bigskip"))
        end
    end
    return pandoc.Figure(items, {caption})
end

multiRowFigure receives a table of images and uses the value assigned to maxInRow to add an extra element at the last index of each row. This is the output of pandoc in latex format with this filter:

\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.1\linewidth}
\centering
\pandocbounded{\includegraphics[keepaspectratio]{test.png}}
\caption{test image}
\end{subfigure}
\hfill
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.1\linewidth}
\centering
\pandocbounded{\includegraphics[keepaspectratio]{test.png}}
\caption{test image}
\end{subfigure}
\hfill
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.1\linewidth}
\centering
\pandocbounded{\includegraphics[keepaspectratio]{test.png}}
\caption{test image}
\end{subfigure}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.1\linewidth}

\bigskip
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{subfigure}[t]{0.1\linewidth}
\centering
\pandocbounded{\includegraphics[keepaspectratio]{test.png}}
\caption{test image}
\end{subfigure}
\caption{Multiline Figure}
\end{figure}

As you can see, it did add the blank line as well as \bigskip but it added a minipage around it as well.

\begin{minipage}[t]{0.1\linewidth} % do not generate this

\bigskip
\end{minipage} % and this

Is it possible to change this behavior of how pandoc generates elements inside figures?

[jgm]

I'm not sure why the minipages are added; this code was added by @tarleb who may be able to explain the motivation.

[TickStop]

Alright, will be waiting for the explanation then.

Regardless, I was actually able to get the result I wanted but it is certainly not practical. I really hope there is another way so I can maybe improve the filter later on.

For anyone interested in my (current) solution - I basically just mimicked what pandoc.Figure did using RawInlines, minus the unwanted environment.

function multiRowFigure(images, caption, maxInRow)
    if maxInRow == nil then maxInRow = 3 end
    local numImages = count(images)
    if maxInRow > numImages then maxInRow = numImages end

    local items = {}
    local function addItem(item)
        table.insert(items, item)
    end
    local function addRawInline(contents)
        addItem(pandoc.RawInline("latex", contents))
    end

    --begin figure
    addRawInline("\\begin{figure}\n\\centering\n")
    for k,img in pairs(images) do
        --begin subfigure
        addRawInline("\\begin{subfigure}[t]{")
        addRawInline(0.9 / maxInRow)
        addRawInline("\\linewidth}\n\\centering\n")
        addItem(img)
        --subfigure caption
        addRawInline("\n\\caption{")
        addRawInline(pandoc.utils.stringify(img.caption))
        --end subfigure
        addRawInline("}\n\\end{subfigure}\n")

        --space or newline
        if k ~= numImages then
            if k % maxInRow == 0 then
                addRawInline("\n\\bigskip\n")
            else
                addRawInline("\\hfill\n")
            end
        end
    end
    --figure caption
    addRawInline("\\caption{")
    addRawInline(caption)
    addRawInline("}\n")
    --end figure
    addRawInline("\\end{figure}\n")
    return items
end

Ah yes, very clean code...

[tarleb]

The reason for the minipage is that each block in a figure is treated as a kind of subfigure. The minipage environment is an easy way to limit the width, thus allowing to put, e.g., multiple code blocks into a figure. There is currently no way to prevent pandoc from adding that code.