Introduction R

The R logo

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Learning outcomes

  • see a first overview of the R programming language
  • see the overview of the course
  • hear about ‘the tarball with exercises’
For teachers

Learning outomes are:

  • Learners have seen an overview of the course
  • Learners have seen an first overview of the R programming language

Priors:

  • What is R?
  • What are features of R?
  • What are R packages?
  • What is the R interpreter?
  • What is RStudio?

Course learning outcomes

  • use the module system to load R
  • use the module system to load site-installed R packages
  • find out which versions of R and packages are installed
  • run R scripts
  • write a batch script for running R
  • install R packages from CRAN
  • see how to install other R packages yourself
  • start batch jobs
  • run RStudio

on the NAISS clusters COSMOS, Dardel, Kebnekaise, Rackham and Tetralith.

Course non-goals

First overview of R

R is a programming language for statistical computing and data visualization (Wikipedia).

graph TD subgraph r[R] r_interpreter[the R interpreter] r_packages[R packages] r_language[the R programming language] r_dev[R software development] rstudio[RStudio] interpreted_language[Interpreted] cran[CRAN] end r_language --> |has| r_dev r_language --> |is| interpreted_language r_language --> |uses| r_packages interpreted_language --> |done by| r_interpreter r_packages --> |maintained by| cran r_dev --> |commonly done in| rstudio

The main general R resources are:

R is used in many NAISS centres:

Schedule

graph TD subgraph login[HPC login] ssh[0.SSH] remote_desktop_website[5.Remote desktop website] remote_desktop_local_thinlinc_client[5.Remote desktop with local ThinLinc client] end subgraph scheduler[scheduler] running_batch_jobs[3.Running batch jobs] running_interactive_session[5.Running an interactive session] end login --> |allows for| scheduler
graph TD subgraph r[R] r_interpreter[1.the R interpreter] r_packages[2.R packages] r_virtual_environments[2.R virtual environments] r_language[1.the R programming language] parallel_and_multithreaded_functions[3.Parallel and multithreaded functions] r_dev[5.R software development] rstudio[5.RStudio] ml[4.Machine learning] interpreted_language[1.Interpreted] cran[1.CRAN] end subgraph modules[modules] r_module[1.R module] r_packages_module[2.R_packages module] rstudio_module[5.RStudio module] end r_language --> |has| r_dev r_language --> |is| interpreted_language r_language --> |uses| r_packages interpreted_language --> |done by| r_interpreter r_packages --> |maintained by| cran r_packages --> |isolated by|r_virtual_environments r_language --> |allows| parallel_and_multithreaded_functions r_language --> |provides for| ml r_dev --> |commonly done in| rstudio r_interpreter --> |loaded by|r_module r_packages --> |loaded by|r_packages_module rstudio --> |loaded by|rstudio_module rstudio_module --> |automatically loads latest| r_packages_module r_packages_module --> |automatically loads corresponding version of| r_module

Exercises used in the course

The course uses a so-called tarball files with exercises as used in this course.

See How to use the course tarball how to get and decompress it.

In the ‘Load and run R’ session, there is the time to do so.