6  Installing the programs

Warning

🚧 This section is being actively worked on. 🚧

In order to participate in the course, you’ll need to install these programs. You may already have some of them installed and if you did, please make sure that they are at least the minimum versions listed below. If not, you will need to update them.

Note

A note to those who use other solutions than a laptop: R and RStudio will not work on an iPad or tablet. Please use your laptop for this course.

  1. R: Any version above 4.5.1. If you have used R before, you can confirm the version by running R.version.string in the Console.
  2. RStudio: Any version above v2025.05.1+513. If you have installed it before, check the current version by going to the menu “Help -> About RStudio”.
  3. Rtools: Choose the version that says “R-release”. Rtools is needed in order to build some R packages. For some computers, installing Rtools can take some time.

  1. R: Any version above 4.5.1. If you have used R before, you can confirm the version by running R.version.string in the Console. If you don’t use Homebrew to install software in MacOS, we strongly recommend you install it. It makes it much easier to install things, for example installing R is as easy as opening a Terminal and running:

    Terminal
    brew install --cask r

    If you don’t use Homebrew, you can download and install R as you normally would by clicking the link above.

  2. RStudio: Any version above v2025.05.1+513. If you have installed it before, check the current version by going to the menu “Help -> About RStudio”. Like with installing R above with Homebrew, installing RStudio can be done by opening a Terminal and writing:

    Terminal
    brew install --cask rstudio

    If you don’t use Homebrew, you can download and install RStudio as you normally would by clicking the link above.

  1. R: Any version above 4.5.1. If you have used R before, you can confirm the version by running R.version.string in the Console.

    Terminal
    sudo apt -y install r-base

  2. RStudio: Any version above v2025.05.1+513. If you have installed it before, check the current version by going to the menu “Help -> About RStudio”.

Tip

All these programs are required for the course.

Once R and RStudio have been installed, open RStudio. If you encounter any troubles during these pre-course tasks, try as best as you can to complete the task and then let us know about the issues in the pre-course survey. If you continue having problems, indicate on the survey that you need help you can come to the course 30 minutes earlier to get help.

To see whether everything is set up okay, see this video at YouTube by Prof. Rubak.

If you’re unable to complete the setup procedure due to unfixable technical issues, you can use Posit Cloud (to use RStudio on the cloud) as a final solution in order to participate in the course. For help setting up Posit Cloud for this course, refer to the Posit Cloud setup guide.