Before getting starting, you need to do the following:
- Sign-up for a Github account
- Install Git
- Install R
- Install R Studio
The instructions for each are below.
##Signing up with Github
Github is a website that supports online repositories of code for version control and collaboration. You can do some cool things with a Github account such as host a static web page as well, but that's beyond this introduction.
To get started with Github, you need to sign-up for a free account. Sign up for a Free Account. Later, we can convert your account to an academic account that pushes you to the micro account level for free. The nice thing about that is it gives you the ability to create repositories that are not publically viewable. If you're working on something that you want to keep private, this is the way to go.
##Installing Git Git is a version control language that allows you to easily track changes, identify errors, and collaborate asynchonosly. There are some more nuances, but this is the gist. To get started with Git, you need to install the Git language on your computer.
Traditionally, users interact with Git through the command line. Fortunately, R Studio (which we'll install later) has some of the primary Git functionality baked in. Because of this, you won't have to interact with Git at the command line very much (unless you pick up another programming language such as Python).
###Setting Up Git Fortuntely, there is a handy tutorial online: Setting up Git
##Installing R
Head over to the CRAN web page and download the base version of R for the appropriate operating system. Use all of the default options when installing.
##Installing R Studio
R comes with a native development environment, but it's a bit clunky and not necessarily straight forward to use. R Studio is a nicely developed and easy to use environment that sits on top of R and Git and makes a lot of useful functionality readily available. Also, it makes the transition from a GUI-based interface with software to a more command line-based interface much easier.
##Other Software In addition to these 4 steps, there are two other pieces of software that will make life much easier.
You only need these if your going to render R Markdown Documents. We will start using these later so you can install on your own time.
###Pandoc
###Tex MacTex - LaTeX for Macintosh MicTex - LaTeX for Windows