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Pre-workshop email

This document contains standard language that can be used in the pre-workshop email including instructions for software set-up.

Note: The document is designed for a workshop using R, if using another language, update accordingly.

Prior to the workshop, please download and install R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics and RStudio, a powerful user interface for R. Note that R is the name of the programming language itself and RStudio is a convenient interface. Therefore while you will be working in RStudio throughout the workshop, R must also be installed on your computer.

Download:

  • R: You can download R from CRAN, the Comprehensive R Archive Network. It is highly recommended to install a precompiled binary distribution for your operating system – use the links up at the top of the CRAN page.
  • RStudio: You can download RStudio Desktop here.

Install: Instructions for installing R and RStudio are provided below, as well as links to videos that walk you through the process. Note newer versions of R and RStudio may have been released since this video, and hence the version names you come accross may not match what you see on the video. However the general instructions should still work.

Do not worry if you run into any trouble during the installation, we will have some time during the workshop to help you.

  • Mac / OS X:

  • PC / Windows:

    • Video instructios
    • Install R: Installation is via the installer R-3.2.2-win.exe. Just double-click on the icon and follow the instructions. See here for more info.
    • Install RStudio:Double click on RStudio-0.99.484.exe and follow the prompts.

  • Unix-alikes: See here for more info.

Testing: Do whatever is appropriate for your OS to launch RStudio. You should get a window similar to the screenshot you see in the video here. Put your cursor in the pane labelled Console, which is where you interact with the live R process. Create a simple object with code like x <- 2 * 4 (followed by enter or return). Then inspect the x object by typing x followed by enter or return. Obviously you should see the value 8 print to screen. If yes, you are good to go.

Add-on packages: R is an extensible system and many people share useful code they have developed as a package via CRAN and github. To install a package from CRAN, for example the ggplot2 package for data visualization (which we will use during the workshop) type install.packages("ggplot2") in your Console. This is one way of installing packages (there are others).