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, and
• a well-developed, simple and effective programming language which includes conditionals, loops, user-defined recursive functions and input and output facilities.

For more information about R, please visit http://www.r-project.org/.

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: http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/

2. Install Rattle:

   • 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.

   When running Rattle, other packages will be downloaded and installed as needed, with Rattle asking for the user's permission before doing so.