Setup Instructions
Please install the following software prior to arriving at the boot camp.
The Bash Shell
Bash is a commonly-used shell. Using a shell gives you more power to do more tasks more quickly with your computer.
Windows
Install Git for Windows by downloading and running the installer. This will provide you with both Git as well as Bash in the Git Bash program.
Mac OS X
The default shell in all versions of Mac OS X is bash,
so no need to install anything. You access bash from
the Terminal (found
in /Applications/Utilities). You may want
to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.
GNU/Linux
The default shell is usually bash,
but if your machine is set up differently
you can run it by opening a terminal and typing bash.
There is no need to install anything.
R
R is a programming language that specializes in statistical computing. It is a powerful tool for exploratory data analysis. To interact with R, we will use RStudio, an interactive development environment (IDE).
Windows
Install R by downloading and running this .exe file from The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). Also, please install the RStudio IDE.
Mac OS X
Install R by downloading and running this .pkg file from The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). Also, please install the RStudio IDE.
GNU/Linux
You can download the binary files for your distribution from The
Comprehensive R Archive Network
(CRAN). Or you
can use your package manager, e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu
run apt-get install r-base. Also, please install the
RStudio IDE.
R packages
We will make use of a number of R packages during the bootcamp.
Please install packages knitr, dplyr,
testthat, plyr. You can do this from
within R by running install.packages(c("knitr", "dplyr", "testthat", "plyr"))
Editor
When you're writing code, it's nice to have a text editor that is optimized for writing code, with features like automatic color-coding of key words. We'll do most of our work in RStudio, but a standalone editor will be useful at times during the bootcamp.
Windows
Notepad++ is a popular free code editor for Windows.
Mac OS X
We recommend Text Wrangler or Sublime Text.
GNU/Linux
Kate is one option.
Git
Git is a state-of-the-art version control system. It lets you track who made changes to what when and has options for easily updating a shared or public version of your code on github.com.
Windows
Install Git for Windows by downloading and running the installer. This will provide you with both Git as well as Bash in the Git Bash program.
Mac OS X
Installing Git may require you to first install XCode. This is a very large download (several gigabytes), so please do it before arriving at the bootcamp.
For Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8:
Go to the Xcode website. Get XCode from the App Store making certain to install the command line tools (from the Download preferences pane). Git is included in the command line tools.
For Mac OS X 10.6
If you have Mac OS X 10.6,
first get XCode by going to
the Apple developer site.
You have to sign in with an Apple ID linked to a Developer account.
If you don't have one,
you can register and create one.
Once you log in,
go to page 8 and find "XCode 3.2.6 and iOS SDK 4.3 for Snow Leopard".
Click to open that section,
and then download the .dmg file.
Finally,
install just git.
GNU/Linux
If Git is not already available on your machine you can try
to install it via your distro's package manager
(e.g. apt-get).
GitHub
GitHub (not to be confused with git) is a website that can host code: you'll learn about this during the bootcamp. Please create an account by filling in this form. A free account is all you will need, but you may request an education discount/account that will give you a private place to host your code.