1  R Setup

1.1 Installing R

This workshop is based in the R programming language. As such, it is necessary to have a recent version installed on your computer. I would suggest R Version \(\geq\) 4.4.

These workshop materials were built and tested using R version 4.5.1 (Great Square Root, released 2025-06-13), with all packages updated on or after October 5, 2025.

1.2 Installing R Studio Desktop

Posit makes a wonderful integrated development environment (IDE) called R Studio Desktop. This is my preferred IDE for R, although you may choose others if you like. I will be using R Studio throughout the workshop.

I am using R Studio Version 2025.09.1+401, which was installed on October 5, 2025.

Note: I just learned about Positron, the new IDE developed by Posit. I haven’t used it yet, but I am excited about the AI coding assistant that’s built in.

1.3 Installing R Tools

RTools is necessary to install or build R packages that require compilation of C, C++, or Fortran code, as it provides the necessary compiler toolchain and build tools. The packages that are available on CRAN do not require having RTools installed because the packages hosted there are precompiled binary packages.

I’m unsure of which packages I’ve downloaded from Github or other sources that require compilation, so I recommend also installing at RTools 4.4. (And it’s just good to have in case you need it later.)