setup.Rmd

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title: 'Setup Instructions'
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During the course we will be using both R and RStudio. To get your computer ready for this course please follow the instructions under **_Core Software_** and **_Get the Data_** headings.   

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## Core Software
**Install R.** You'll need R version **`r paste(R.Version()$major, ".", R.Version()$minor, sep="")`** or higher. Download and install R for [Windows](http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/){target="_blank"},  [Mac](http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/){target="_blank"} (download the latest R-4.x.x.pkg file for your appropriate version of Mac OS) or [linux](https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux){target="_blank"} (choose your flavour of linux).

**Install RStudio.** Download and install the free [RStudio Desktop](https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/){target="_blank"} version.

You will need to download and install R and RStudio separately. **R** is the underlying statistical computing environment. **RStudio** is a graphical integrated development environment (IDE) that makes using R a little easier. You need to install R before you install RStudio.

See the following video for step by step instructions to installing R and RStudio.

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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/415501284" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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And see this video for a short introduction to using RStudio.

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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/416391353" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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## Get the Data
Click the **[<i class="fa fa-download"></i> Data](data.html)** link on the navbar at the top of the course website and follow one of the two options described. You can either download all the data needed by downloading **[this zip file <i class="fa fa-file-archive-o" aria-hidden="true"></i>](data/all_data.zip)** or by downloading individual data sets as needed at the **[<i class="fa fa-download"></i> Data](data.html)** page. If you download the zip file you will need to use your favourite software to uncompress this file (although most operating systems now have at least one built-in (un)compression tool). 

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## Optional Software

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### R markdown
Installing R markdown is not required for this course. However, for those of you who are interested in using R markdown to create reproducible reports (or websites like this one!) follow these [instructions](install_rmarkdown.html){target="_blank"} to install R markdown on your computer. We also have a separate tutorial on using [R markdown](Rmarkdown_intro.html) which goes into way more detail.  

### Git and GitHub
For those of you interested in using version control to keep track of your projects please see our [Introduction to Git and GitHub tutorial](Github_intro.html) for information on how to install and configure Git and GitHub on your computer. Note, this is not required to complete this course.