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Paul Magwene edited this page Sep 3, 2011 · 1 revision

Software packages to download and install

Below are the major software packages I'd like you to install on your computer before the first class session. Since all of the packages listed below use platform standard installers I don't expect you should run into any installation issues, but if so we will do some troubleshooting during the first class.

R

OS X -- download at http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/macosx/R-2.13.1.pkg

Windows -- download at http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/windows/base/R-2.13.1-win.exe

R Studio

R studio is a recently released integrated development environment (IDE) for R. It runs on all the major platforms. After installing R (above) download and install the appropriate "R Studio Desktop" binary for your platform from: http://rstudio.org/download/desktop.

Python

The Enthought Python Distribution (EPD) is a "batteries-included" version of Python that includes both the standard Python tools and libraries plus the most commonly used scientific and numeric libraries. Enthought provides the EPD free to academics and their license (http://www.enthought.com/EPDAcademicTerms.html specifies that we can distribute the EPD within the academic community. You can get the download link (academic email address required)here http://www.enthought.com/products/edudownload.php. Enthought will email you a link to a website where you can download an apprpriate package for your platform.

NOTE: on OS X please make sure to install the 32-bit version (the file called epd-7.1-2-macosx-i386.dmg).

LaTeX

LaTeX is a "high-quality typesetting system...designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation." We'll be using LaTeX to facilitate "reproducible research" using R and Python.

NOTE: These LaTeX distributions are very large (apprx. 1.8Gb for MacTeX); don't wait until you're in class to download and install them.

Programmer's text-editor

When programming you'll need to use an editor that works in plain text. It will save you a lot of time and grief if your editor is programmer friendly. If you want a very powerful editor either Vim or Emacs are the cross-platform weapons of choice, however both have a bit of a learning curve. Below are some other possible choices. My recommendation is you find an editor your comfortable with and learn it's ins-and-outs. Your time investment will pay off in the long run.

Cross-platform:

  • gEdit -- the official text-editor of the Gnome desktop environment (under Linux), also available for Windows and OS X.
  • jEdit (free, cross-platform)
  • UltraEdit (commercial, cross-platform)

OS X:

  • TextWrangler (free) -- a free text editor from the maker's of BBEdit (a more powerful tool that you might also consider).
  • MacVim (free) -- a nice GUI wrapper around Vim.
  • TextMate (commercial)

Windows:

  • SciTE -- SciTE comes with the EPD on windows. This should already be available in your Start Menu.
  • Notepad++ (free)

Developers tools

The following tools are ones we won't be using right away, but will do so later in the semester. This includes a variety of unix tools that you might find convenient for your own uses.

Xcode (OS X only)

If you have an older Mac, Apple distributed Xcode on one of the discs that came with your Mac. If you can't locate that disk you can get the Xcode tools for free from the Apple site here: http://developer.apple.com/technologies/xcode.html, however you'll have to sign up for an Apple developer account (also free). Recently, Apple has begun to distribute Xcode via the App store. Using one of these mechanisms, download and install Xcode 4.

Cygwin (Windows only)

Cygwin provides a unix-like environment on Windows. Download the setup.exe from http://www.cygwin.com/ and follow the instructions.

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