Two Ways To Share Static Key Pair Values Across Different Tangled Source Files With Org-Mode Literate Programming

This post asks about how you can share static key pair values across different tangled source files. The following are my two tries.

These examples

Use Emacs Lisp because it is easier for me
Use the configuration at the bottom
Define a collection to store the key pair values but you could use anything anywhere you wanted
At the bottom I included the expanded source blocks for each approach and they are identical in what they do but different in their generated code

Using Variables

Use var statements. This has the benefit of source blocks that look like “real code”.

#+PROPERTY: header-args :comments no
#+NAME: org_gcr_2017-07-13_mara_EB157A25-740C-48B5-B950-0CE6AF564C98
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results none
(setq myvars (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
(puthash "a" "17" myvars)
(puthash "b" "84" myvars)
(puthash "default" "no match found" myvars)
#+END_SRC
#+NAME: org_gcr_2017-07-13_mara_E0B9AA8C-42B1-4982-954F-1CADAF977116
#+BEGIN_SRC sh :tangle test1.sh :var a=(gethash "a" myvars) :tangle test.sh
echo a
#+END_SRC
#+NAME: org_gcr_2017-07-13_mara_57BEEA3A-ED9C-4042-955B-AF6CA8385AE0
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var b=(gethash "b" myvars) :tangle test1.el
(message b)
#+END_SRC

Using Noweb Calls

Use noweb calls. This has the benefit of super flexibility (noweb ref calls are just plain old function calls really). It looks more dramatic. The calls really stand out unlike the var approach.

#+PROPERTY: header-args :comments no
#+NAME: org_gcr_2017-07-13_mara_EB157A25-740C-48B5-B950-0CE6AF564C98
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results none
(setq myvars (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
(puthash "a" "17" myvars)
(puthash "b" "84" myvars)
(puthash "default" "no match found" myvars)
#+END_SRC
#+name: myx
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results value scalar :noweb-ref myvar :var key="default"
(gethash key myvars)
#+END_SRC
#+NAME: org_gcr_2017-07-13_mara_E0B9AA8C-42B1-4982-954F-1CADAF977116
#+BEGIN_SRC sh :tangle test2.sh
echo <<myx(key="a")>>
#+END_SRC
#+NAME: org_gcr_2017-07-13_mara_57BEEA3A-ED9C-4042-955B-AF6CA8385AE0
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :tangle test2.el
(message <<myx(key="b")>>)
#+END_SRC

Expanded Source Blocks

Call org-babel-expand-src-block to see how the source block expands. This is a lot faster than tangling the source to see the resulting code or evaluating the source block to see if it works right.
Expansion of the source blocks: they are identical in operation
- Using variables
  - test1.sh
```
a='17'
echo a
```
  - test1.el
```
(let ((b (quote "84")))
  (message b)
  )
```
- Using Noweb
  - test2.sh
```
echo "17"
```
  - test2.el
```
(message "84")
```

My Configuration

System

Org-Version: 9.0.9
Org-Git-Version:release_9.0.9-737-g7e46af
Emacs-Version: GNU Emacs 25.2.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0, Carbon Version 157 AppKit 1404.47)
 of 2017-07-28
Noweb wrap start and stop delimeters: ’<<’ and ’>>’
org-babel-default-header-args:
((:session . "none")
 (:results . "replace")
 (:exports . "code")
 (:cache . "no")
 (:noweb . "no")
 (:hlines . "no")
 (:tangle . "no"))

Block

Name: org_gcr_2017-07-14_mara_13AA581B-CF83-4044-AE96-B94DEA65FC8C
Lang: org
Properties:
  :header-args    nil
  :header-args:org    nil
Header Arguments:
  :cache    no
  :comments   noweb
  :eval     never-export
  :exports  code
  :hlines     no
  :mkdirp     yes
  :noweb    no-export
  :padline  yes
  :results  silent raw value table
  :session  none
  :tangle     no
  :wrap     EXAMPLE