The Rfuncs Project
Installing R and RStudio
R is far more than a "stat package" for data management and analysis. It is a major platform for developing applications useful to researchers in all fields. RStudio is now the dominant "front-end" (or integrated development environment, IDE ) for using R. Both R and RStudio Desktop are free and have versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. These instructions are for Mac and Windows. For Linux users, click here to see how I did it.
Installing R
If you have not installed the most recent version of R, do so by visiting https://www.r-project.org/. The screenshots below show what Mac and Windows users encountered on 8 February 2016.
If you have not installed the most recent version of R, do so by visiting https://www.r-project.org/. The screenshots below show what Mac and Windows users encountered on 8 February 2016.
Clicks #1-3, all platforms
Click #4, Mac OS X
Clicks #4 and #5, Windows
The remaining steps are similar to installing/updating other applications for Mac OS X or Windows.
Installing RStudio
If you have not installed the most recent version of RStudio, do so now at https://www.rstudio.com/home/. The RStudio Desktop IDE is all you'll probably ever need, and it is free. Here is how things looked on 8 February 2016.
The remaining steps are similar to installing/updating other software on these platforms.
Launch RStudio and configure its panes
Launch RStudio. Under its Tools menu, click Global Options .... and then Pane Layout. I strongly advise that you devote one pane exclusively to Source, for viewing editing, running, and sourcing R code, and another one exclusively to Console, for communicating directly with and receiving output from R. My configuration looks like this:
Launch RStudio. Under its Tools menu, click Global Options .... and then Pane Layout. I strongly advise that you devote one pane exclusively to Source, for viewing editing, running, and sourcing R code, and another one exclusively to Console, for communicating directly with and receiving output from R. My configuration looks like this:
So my RStudio window looks like this.
Of course, you may prefer something different. But if you are unfamiliar with RStudio, I recommend you conform to the above.