{\em my text} not converting as emphasis in RST

[josephcslater]

Version 2.3.2.2

{\em my text} doesn't result in *my text* like \emph{my text} does.

This is a problem when converting bibtex output- at least in the case of the format I'm using.

The following has one that works and another that does (using \emph and \em)

pandoc -f latex  pubs.tex.txt -o pubs.rst

Github won't upload files with .tex extension, so I've added .txt.
pubs.tex.txt

[jgm]

% pandoc -f latex -t native
{\em ASME Turbo Expo 2018:  Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition\/}
^D
[Para [Span ("",[],[]) [Emph [Str "ASME",Space,Str "Turbo",Space,Str "Expo",Space,Str "2018:",Space,Str "Turbomachinery",Space,Str "Technical",Space,Str "Conference",Space,Str "and",Space,Str "Exposition"]]]]

As you can see, pandoc is recognizing this as Emph(asized), but the Emph element is put inside a Span (because of the { } grouping).

You'll get emphasis in HTML:

<p><span><em>ASME Turbo Expo 2018: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition</em></span></p>

but the extra span is blocking emphasis in RST output.

[josephcslater]

Right- so can this be "corrected"?

Note that this is the output of bibtex- I don't necessarily directly control it then. I have written a dirty work around to string replace {\em with \emph{, but I think that this should be done in general by pandoc.

[jgm]

Yes, I'll fix it.

[josephcslater]

Someday I might understand the code enough. Sorry. I actually tried, but coming from "zero" I couldn't make heads or tales of it.

btw- awesome code. Thanks!