Hello Charlie:

I have found that I like better to use a combination of tangle and import instead of noweb syntax.

#+BEGIN_SRC python :tangle board.py
def init_board(args)
    return [[-1 for x in range(3)] for y in range(3)]
#+END_SRC

#+BEGIN_SRC python
import sys
import os
from board import init_board    

def main(args):
    init_board(args)
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
    main(sys.argv)
#+END_SRC

Then, you do a M-x org-babel-tangle and org will write the first block into board.py. Then you go into the second block and run it with C-c C-c and it will load the init_board function from the tangled file.

Writing it this way forces you to modularize your code blocks to be able to call them from other blocks and you can even build your whole application tangling the source blocks into files.

The :noweb syntax seems to me to be a templating solution used for a code module problem.

I hope it helps you


Martin

On Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 7:52 PM Charles R (Charlie) Martin <chasrmartin@gmail.com> wrote:
Grumble. Okay, this is sorted/ There are amazing numbers of not-quite-right examples on the web.

Thanks, Tom, I now have the below, which works.

#+TITLE: Console Tic Tac Toe
#+SUBTITLE: A Literate Program in EMACS Org-Mode
#+AUTHOR: Charlie Martin
#+STARTUP: showall

#+BEGIN_SRC python :tangle yes :noweb yes
  import sys
  import os

  def main(args):
      <<initialize-the-game-board>>

  if __name__ == "__main__":
      main(sys.argv)
#+END_SRC

#+NAME: initialize-the-game-board
#+BEGIN_SRC python 
  board = [[-1 for x in range(3)] for y in range(3)]
#+END_SRC




On Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Thomas S. Dye <tsd@tsdye.com> wrote:
Aloha Charlie,

Charles R (Charlie) Martin writes:

> I'm trying to get literate programming with `:noweb` syntax working in
> org-mode. I think I'm down to about the minimum case:
>
>         #+TITLE: Console Tic Tac Toe
>     #+SUBTITLE: A Literate Program in EMACS Org-Mode
>     #+AUTHOR: Charlie Martin
>     #+STARTUP: showall
>
>     #+BEGIN_SRC python :tangle yes :noweb
>       import sys
>       import os
>
>       def main(args):
>           <<initialize-the-game-board>>
>
>       if __name__ == "__main__":
>           main(sys.argv)
>     #+END_SRC
>
>     #+NAME: initialize-the-game-board
>     #+BEGIN_SRC python :tangle yes :noweb
>       board = [[-1 for x in range(3)] for y in range(3)]
>     #+END_SRC
>
> but when I tangle it I get:
>
>     import sys
>     import os
>
>     def main(args):
>         <<initialize-the-game-board>>
>
>     if __name__ == "__main__":
>         main(sys.argv)
>
>     board = [[-1 for x in range(3)] for y in range(3)]
>
> I've tried permuting the argument, flags, and so on to no avail.
>
> EMACS version is 25.3.1 MacOS, org-mode 9.1.3

I think it should be :noweb yes

hth,
Tom

--
Thomas S. Dye
http://www.tsdye.com