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.
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):
-
Download and install R (32-bit version) with default settings.
- Install Rattle.
- 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.