rivtlib 1.0.0a4

a package for editing and formatting engineering documents

rivtlib is alpha software. Some features are not complete and the program has a number of bugs.

rivt is an open source software project that simplifies sharing and reuse of engineering documents. This has always been a challenge because engineering documents typically include text, images, tables, calculations, models and computer code, which adds to complexity when assembling documents and reports.

The primary use case for rivt is producing engineering documents that lie somewhere between back of envelope notes and calculations, and formal journal publications. In other words, it produces formatted, organized documents that are easy to edit.

The second use case is when flexibilty is needed to produce documents in a variety of formats including text, PDF or HTML. A rivt file publishes a rivt doc as a text, PDF or HTML file. A rivt file is a Python file (.py) that imports the rivtlib Python package and includes rivt markup. A collection of rivt docs may be linked and collated as a rivt report. The rivt user manual is here.

Use Cases

rivt files can function as a front and back end for:

1. software control

2. visualization

3. instrumentation

rivt docs can be used for:

1. internal communication

2. research documentation

3. government permits

4. technical reports

5. funding applications

rivt is compatible with collaborative tools and may be used for:

1. teaching

2. presentations

3. real time collaboration

The table below summarizes and compares limitations between different software programs. rivt is designed to address these limitations and serve as a complement or replacement to existing software.

Software Comparison

Program	Rep [1]	Ver [2]	Txt [3]	Comp [4]	CP [5]	Collab [6]
Matlab	no	no	no	no	no	no
Mathcad	no	no	no	no	no	no
Mathematica	no	no	no	no	no	no
Cloud SaaS	limited	no	no	no	yes	limited
Excel	limited	no	no	yes	no	yes
Jupyter	no	no	no	yes	yes	yes
rivt	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes

[1]

Report generation

[2]

Native version control

[3]

Plain text, readable input files

[4]

Forward and backward compatibility

[5]

Cross-platform

[6]

Collaboration support