R / Rattle

About R

R is an integrated suite of software facilities for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display. It includes:

  • An effective data handling and storage facility.
  • A suite of operators for calculations on arrays, in particular matrices.
  • A large, coherent, integrated collection of intermediate tools for data analysis.
  • Graphical facilities for data analysis and display either on-screen or on hardcopy.
  • A well-developed, simple and effective programming language which includes conditionals, loops, user-defined recursive functions and input and output facilities.

Information About R

R and Rattle Installation

We recommend that students stop by ITG to have R and the Rattle package installed, but for any student that is savvy enough, you can try the following (your professors will be using the Windows version in the classroom):

  1. Download and install R (32-bit version) with default settings.

  2. Install Rattle.
  3. When running Rattle, other packages will be downloaded and installed as needed, with Rattle asking for the user's permission before doing so.
  • Open the R Desktop icon (32 bit) and enter the following command at the R prompt:
    • > install.packages(""rattle"")
  • R will ask for a CRAN mirror. Choose any nearby location.
  • Enter the following two commands at the R prompt. This loads the Rattle package into the library and then starts up Rattle.
    • > library(rattle)
    • > rattle()
  • If the RGtk2 package has not been installed, there will be an error popup indicating that libatk-1.0-0.dll is missing from your computer. Click OK and you will be asked to install GTK+. Click OK to do so. This downloads and installs the appropriate GTK+ libraries for your computer.