You use R by writing commands in the R language and asking your computer to interpret them. In the old days, people ran R code in a UNIX terminal window—as if they were hackers in a movie from the 1980s. Now almost everyone uses R with an application called RStudio, and I recommend that you do, too. This week, we take the gloves off, and the lectures cover key topics like control structures and functions. We also introduce the first programming assignment for the course, which is due at the end of the week.
The following example shows how R can generate and plot a linear model with residuals. If you have questions about R like how to download and install the software, or what the license terms are, please read our answers to frequently asked questions before you send an email. This gives you handy and easy way to use functions in series without creating variables and storing intermediate values.
The R Project for Statistical Computing
The console window is exactly what you’d see if you ran R from a UNIX console or the Windows or Mac GUIs. Hidden in the other panes are a text editor, a graphics window, a debugger, a file manager, and much more. You’ll learn about these panes as they become useful throughout the course of this book. To get started with R, you need to acquire your own copy. This appendix will show you how to download R as well as RStudio, a software application that makes R easier to use. You’ll go from downloading R to opening your first R session.
The lectures this week cover loop functions and the debugging tools in R. These aspects of R make R useful for both interactive work and writing longer code, and so they are commonly used in practice. The R Core Team was founded in 1997 to maintain the R source code. The R Foundation for Statistical Computing was founded in April 2003 to provide financial support. The R Consortium is a Linux Foundation project to develop R infrastructure.
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Available for installation are various integrated development environments (IDE). IDEs for R include R.app (OSX/macOS only), Rattle GUI, R Commander, RKWard, RStudio, r&d tax credit and Tinn-R. R isn’t a program that you can open and start using, like Microsoft Word or Internet Explorer. Instead, R is a computer language, like C, C++, or UNIX.