In this course, we'll be using a variety of different software programs to write, manage, and execute the code that we write. Unfortunately, one of the most frustrating and confusing barriers to start working with code is simply getting your machine properly set-up. This repository aims to provide sufficient information for setting up your machine, and troubleshooting the process. Do your best to follow instructions and search for help online, but don't waste too much time before contacting your TA. We'll also set aside time in the first lab session to help with machine set-up.
Note, classroom machines for this course should have all appropriate software already installed and ready to use.
Contents
In short, you'll need to install the following programs: see below for more information / options.
- RStudio: An interface for writing and running R code, which is our primary language for the quarter (link)
- Git: A set of command-line tools for tracking changes to a project. This is likely already installed on Macs. The Windows download will come with Git Bash, a simple interface for executing Git commands (link).
- SublimeText: A text-editor in which to write longer programming scripts (link).
The following sections have additional information about the purpose of each component, how to install it, and alternative configurations.
The primary programming language we will use throughout the course is R. It's a very powerful statistical programming language that is built to work well with large and diverse datasets. While you are able to execute R scripts without an interface, the RStudio interface provides a wonderful way to engage with the R language.
To download the RStudio program, select the installer for your operating system at this link. Make sure to scroll down to download a free version of RStudio:
Once the download completes, double-click on the .exe file to run the installer. Simply follow the steps of the installer, and you should be prepared to use RStudio. By downloading RStudio, you will also install the R programming language, if it is not already present in your operating system.
Git is a version control system that provides a set of commands that allow you to manage changes to a project (much more on this in module-3). For now, you'll need to download and install the software. Note, if you are using a Windows machine, this will install a program called Git Bash, which provides a text-based interface for executing commands on your computer. For alternative/additional Windows command-line tools, see below.
The command-line provides you a text-based interface for providing instructions to your computer. In this course, we'll largely use the command-line for navigating our computer's file structure, and executing commands that allow us to keep track of changes to the code we write (i.e., version control). If you're using a Mac, you are able to access your command-line by default, and don't need to install any additional software. If you're using a Windows machine, you'll need to install one of the following programs in order to interact directly with the command-line.
Because we'll primarily use the command line for implementing version control (i.e., keeping track of changes to our code), we can use a command-line tool that ships with the version control software, Git. When you download the Git software on Windows, the Git Bash user-interface will be installed. You can then navigate to Git Bash from your Desktop / Start Menu, and you will be able to use the appropriate syntax to keep track of code changes.
With the release of Windows 10, Windows began providing command line (bash) support. If you already have Windows 10, here are a few instructions for installing bash capabilities. This requires that you switch to 64 bit windows, and follow the instructions above. While this will provide you with direct bash capabilities, you may run into challenges along the way (I have not tested these instructions). Note, you will still need to install Git in addition to Windows Bash.
If you want to explore more robust command-line alternatives for Windows, the Windows Management Framework (including a program called Powershell) seems to be a preferred standard. Powershell will provide a simple text-based interface for inputing commands. Note, you will still need to install Git in addition to Powershell.
In order to write code, you need somewhere to write it (obviously). There are a variety of available programs that provide an interface for editing code. A major advantage of these programs is that they provide automatic formatting for easier interpretation of the code, along with cool features like auto-completion and integration with version control.
RStudio has a great built in text editor, but you'll (at times) want to use another text editor which is more robust, or designed for a different programming language. You really only need to download one of the following programs, but feel free to download multiple text-editors to compare and contrast how you like them.
SublimeText is a very popular text editor with excellent defaults and a variety of available extensions. One drawback is that, to use it without paying, you are using an unlimited free trial. Every ~10 times you save a file, it will ask you if you want to purchase the full version, which is a bit distracting. SublimeText2 is the current stable version of the software, though feel free to install SublimeText3 if you don't mind using software that's in beta.
Atom is a text editor built by the folks at GitHub, and has been gaining in popularity. As an open source project, people are continually building (and making available) interesting/useful extensions. It's built-in spell-check is a great feature, especially for documents that require lots of written text. See more and download here.
Macdown is a program (for Macs only, unfortunately) that is designed for writing Markdown documents. It's biggest advantage is that it provides a live view of how your Markdown document will be rendered:
Download here.
If you run into any installation/configuration challenges, please let others know on the slack channel so that others can anticipate the same issues.