Installation Help

Our course consists of a series of lectures and computer labs. You will need to bring a laptop computer for the labs. We will be using these laptops to run programs such as R and access cloud computing resources.

Computer Requirements

You are welcome to bring whatever laptop you are used to using (Mac OS, Windows, Linux). Any modern laptop will have sufficient memory, speed, and power, but it must meet the following minimum requirements:

1. It should be wireless capable, as there are very few Ethernet plugs available.

2. Your power cords should be compatible with US electrical outlets (or bring an appropriate adapter).

3. You must know the administrative password or otherwise have rights to install new software. If you have no choice except to bring a locked machine on which you cannot install new software, please talk to course directors in advance to be sure that the minimum software is preinstalled on the laptop.

4. Before you arrive, you should try to make sure you have a Unix-like command-line environment available. Additionally, though we will have cloud-computing resources available, you may want to install R and RStudio on your local computer. There is some installation help below if needed, and we can always try to help with things at the course if you run into any trouble :)

Installation

A Unix-like command-line terminal

If you are bringing a Mac or Linux computer to work on, these already have the required command-line environment. If you are bringing a Windows computer, you will need to set up a Unix-like command-line environment.

• If the operating system is Windows 10 or later, it includes a way to run a Unix-like command-line environment. You can follow the helpful steps outlined here to get set up.

• If the operating system is an earlier version, you can set up a command-line working environment relatively easily through Git for Windows by following these steps.

  • Download the "Git-2.22.0-64-bit.exe" file from the Git for Windows download page (scroll down a little bit to "Assets")
  • After it is finished downloading, run the installer by opening the file and proceed through the installation:
    • installing in the default folder location is fine
    • for "Which components should be installed?", make sure the following boxes are checked: "On the Desktop"; "Git Bash Here"; "Git GUI Here"; "Associate .git* configuration files with the default text editor"; and "Associate .sh files to be run with Bash"
    • the shortcuts default location is fine
    • change the default Git editor to "Nano"
    • on the "Adjusting your PATH environment" screen, select "Use Git from Git Bash only"
    • just click "Next" on the remaining configuration windows, and "Install" at the final one
  • When the installation is finished, you should be able to open a terminal window by launching Git Bash from your desktop.

R

R is a programming language that is extremely useful for statistical analysis and generating figures. We will have available and be using some cloud-computing resources for the course that will provide the R environment needed, but you may wish to have R and RStudio installed on your local computer as well. If so, you can follow the instructions at the following pages to download and install the appropriate version for your operating system:

Mac – https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/
Windows – https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/
Linux – https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/

RStudio

Rstudio is an interface for R that not only makes everything you will do in R easier and more organized, but it’s also invaluable for reproducibility of your analyses as it makes it second-nature to generate and save log files (R scripts) of everything you’re doing.

Download and install the appropriate version of RStudio for your system from here: https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download

MBL Wifi

When you check in at the Swope Building you will be issued an MBL ID card that will provide access to the cafeteria and buildings after-hours; please keep it with you. This card has the code you will need to register your laptop with the MBL-REGISTER wireless network. Instructions for registering will be available when you check in. You will need to use the MBL-REGISTER network (not the MBLGuest network) for most aspects of the workshop, so please make sure you can establish the connection.