datatable_options should be in $variables, not in attributes.

The documentation for theme_datatable() says that the $variables array contains an element 'datatable_options'. In fact the code looks for that element in the 'attributes' array.

I'm trying to work around the problem that datatables gives the javascript error

Requested unknown parameter '1' from the data source for row 0"

when your table has the 'empty' option by writing

return theme(count($list) ? 'datatable' :  'table', $table);

but that's not working because the datatable_options array shows up in the table attributes.