Conditional prefix prepending for docclasses

To remove the prefix for document classes completely is not necessary. Old
style config files can still work if there is a corresponding condition which
prepends 'sphinx' only when the configured document class is one of the Sphinx
specific classes.

sphinx/writers/latex.py

@@ -167,6 +167,9 @@ class LaTeXTranslator(nodes.NodeVisitor):
         'transition':      '\n\n\\bigskip\\hrule{}\\bigskip\n\n',
     }
 
+    # sphinx specific document classes
+    docclasses = ('howto', 'manual')
+
     def __init__(self, document, builder):
         nodes.NodeVisitor.__init__(self, document)
         self.builder = builder
@@ -179,7 +182,7 @@ class LaTeXTranslator(nodes.NodeVisitor):
 
         self.elements = self.default_elements.copy()
         self.elements.update({
-            'wrapperclass': document.settings.docclass,
+            'wrapperclass': self.format_docclass(document.settings.docclass),
             'papersize':    papersize,
             'pointsize':    builder.config.latex_font_size,
             # if empty, the title is set to the first section title
@@ -276,6 +279,13 @@ class LaTeXTranslator(nodes.NodeVisitor):
         self.previous_spanning_column = 0
         self.remember_multirow = {}
 
+    def format_docclass(self, docclass):
+        """ prepends prefix to sphinx document classes
+        """
+        if docclass in self.docclasses:
+            docclass = 'sphinx' + docclass
+        return docclass
+
     def astext(self):
         return (HEADER % self.elements +
                 self.highlighter.get_stylesheet() +