Installing the package

HYLOA is distributed both with pip and with a wheel (.whl) through GitHub Releases. The recommended installation method is different between Linux and Windows, but in both cases it is possible to use either method. The wheel installation allows you to choose the version, and is recommended for Windows users, because it includes a simple installer script which is the setup.bat file; while the pip installation allows you to get the latest version directly from PyPI.

Linux Installation

It is recommended to do this in a virtual environment to avoid conflicts with other packages:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Alternative method: wheel installation

  1. Go to the release page:

    https://github.com/Francesco-Zeno-Costanzo/hyloa/releases

  2. Download the file:

    hyloa-<version>-py3-none-any.whl

  3. Open a terminal in the folder where the wheel was downloaded.

  4. Install HYLOA with:

python -m pip install hyloa-<version>-py3-none-any.whl

Replace <version> with the actual release version.

Windows installation using setup.bat

To make the installation process easier for Windows users, each release includes a simple installer script: setup.bat. You can use it to install HYLOA and create a desktop shortcut to launch the GUI.

You only need to do the following:

  1. Download from the release page:

    • hyloa-<version>-py3-none-any.whl

    • setup.bat

  2. Double-click setup.bat

The script will:

  • install HYLOA,

  • create a desktop shortcut to launch the GUI.

This will automatically install everything you need and create a desktop shortcut to launch the GUI.

Note

On Windows, make sure that Python is installed with the “Add python.exe to PATH” option enabled during the installer setup. If you forgot to check that box, you can add Python to your PATH manually:

Add Python to PATH (user level):

  1. Open the Start Menu and search for “Environment Variables”, then open “Edit the system environment variables”.

  2. Click “Environment Variables…”.

  3. Under “User variables”, select Path and click “Edit…”.

  4. Click “New” and paste the folder path containing python.exe (e.g. C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311).

  5. Optionally, also add the Scripts subfolder.

  6. Click OK to close all dialogs.

After doing this, close and reopen your terminal and run:

python --version

to verify that Python is correctly available in your PATH.

Updating HYLOA

To update HYLOA to the latest version, is possible to use pip: .. code-block:: bash

pip install –upgrade hyloa

Alternatively, you can simply download the latest wheel file from the GitHub Releases page and install it as shown above. This will overwrite the previous installation with the new version.

Installing from source (developer mode)

If you want to modify the code or contribute:

git clone https://github.com/Francesco-Zeno-Costanzo/hyloa.git
cd hyloa
python -m pip install -e .

This installs HYLOA in editable mode, ideal for development. Via pip install -e . the package is linked to the source code, so any changes you make will be reflected immediately without needing to reinstall.

Final Notes

Distributing HYLOA as a wheel in GitHub Releases or with pip allows users to download only the necessary installation files without downloading the whole repository. This makes installation fast, clean, and platform-independent. The differences in installation methods between Linux and Windows are mainly due to the convenience of providing a simple installer script for Windows users, which allows the creation of a desktop shortcut and a more straightforward installation process without needing to use the command line.