A.1 Start

[1t] Run examples

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rivt file examples can be run in the cloud or on a local computer. In both cases editing and publishing is typically carried out in an IDE. rivt documentation is focused on VSCode, but any IDE may be used. A typical IDE layout can be viewed at Codesandbox. The sandbox allows scrolling through an example rivt file (left panel) and text doc (right panel). Files may be downloaded from the file explorer (far left panel) including the text, pdf and html reports. Because the is unregistered editor files cannot be edited or processed.

VSCode is a customizable Microsoft IDE that can be run locally or in the cloud. The cloud version is referred to as a Codespace . It can be forked (copied) and run in a personal GithUb account that may be set up here.

A rivt Codespace is an environment with rivt extensions for editing and running rivt files. A rivt Codepsace with examples can be forked from this repository by following the steps below.

Fork a rivt Codespace in the cloud

1. Click the Fork button in the upper right corner.
   This creates a copy of the repository in your GitHub account.
2. Switch to your GitHub account and open the forked repository
3. Click the green Code button
4. Select the Codespaces tab
5. Click the rivt-codespace-examples option.
6. This creates a Codespace environment in your GitHub account
   and opens the repository in the online VSCode IDE. The environment
   includes the rivt packages and extensions needed to run and
   publish rivt docs and files.

Local installation methods

1. Windows portable zip folder ([2t] rivt-portable)

2. uv package manager ([3t] rivt-uv)

3. system Python package ([4t] rivt-sys)

rivt-portable is recommended for Windows users unfamiliar with Python

[2t] rivt-portable

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A rivt-portable installation is recommended for Windows users unfamiliar with Python. The portable zip filename is :

win64-rivt-portable-n.n.n[an].zip

where n-n-n is the major, minor and patch release number. An an appended to the version is an alpha release, which indicates that features are missing and rivt markup syntax may change in the future. Zip file contents must be unzipped into a directory with read-write access - typically the users home folder or a flash drive. The zipped and unzipped file sizes are approximately 1GB and 2GB respectively, and the contents include:

release: rivt-portable-1.0.0a4.zip

1. Python 3.14 with rivt packages
2. VSCode 1.109 with rivt extensions
3. rivt-1.1.0a4
4. Example rivt files

Releases may be download from the GitHub repository.

The primary advantages of rivt-portable are simplified installation, package integration, and isolation from system files. VSCode and examples are started with a single shortcut.

The primary disadvantages of rivt-portable are that rivt packages components, extensions must be updated as a single zip file, and that it is more difficult to integrate with other Python programs. Each zip file is about 300 MB and releases are planned monthly.

[3t] rivt-uv

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rivt-uv uses the uv package manager to create an isolated rivt environment and install packages. The primary advantage of rivt-uv is its simplicity and speed in updating packages without affecting the system Python.

The rivt-uv installation method is recommended for most users with some familiarity with Python and programming.

Step 1. Install uv

Different methods for installing uv are described here.

The recommended method for installing uv is from the command line:

Windows:

winget install --id=astral-sh.uv  -e

macOS and Linux:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Step 2. Create the rivt environment

After installing uv, download and run the following rivt install script. It installs an isolated rivt environment and example files in a folder named rivt-examples in the users Home directory.

Windows: rivtuv.cmd

OSX and Linux: rivtuv.sh

Step 3. Run the example program from Pyzo.

The rivt environment is activated by:

Windows:

./venv/Scripts/activate

macOS and Linux:

source venv/bin/activate

rivt includes the Pyzo IDE for editing and running examples. Typing the command pyzo-example from the environment root will load the example file rv00-simple-doc.py where it can be edited and run.

The example file can also be run from the command line with the command:

python -m rivt rv001-single-doc.py

The uv environment can be completely removed with the following commands.

uv deactivate
rmdir /s /q rivt-examples
uv cache clean

[4t] rivt-sys

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rivt may be installed at the system level.

1. Install Python using Python installers if not already installed. The minimum version required by rivt is Python 3.13.

2. Install rivtlib and dependencies

pip install rivtlib

A list of the dependencies is here.