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The R Statistical Programing Environment

Using R under windows

There are a variety of different packages to do statistical analyses on, namely SAS, S-Plus, SPSS, Minitab, Statistica, etc. R is one of the best statistical programming packages today. One advantage that R has on all of them is that it is open source and released under the GNU GPL license, which means that it is free and will always be free. R is an open source implementation of the S language that is used in the S-plus statistical package. It was programmed for the Linux and Unix platforms, which is what I use (Linux). However, since the GNU tools have been ported to windows as well, then R is also available for windows. I wrote these instuctions at the request of several friends who wanted to know how to integrate Emacs and R together.

There are a variety of ways to interface with R. Three outstanding methods for interfacing with R are:

1. The ESS (Emacs Speaks Statistics) package for Emacs
   Integrating Emacs with R is one of the most popular ways of interfacing with R on a Unix/Linux box. Both R and Emacs are originally written for Unix/Linux. However, Windows versions are also available. In fact, the integration with Emacs is also possible on a Windows box.
2. The Rcmdr package
   R can also be controlled by using Rcmdr, a GUI interface for many of the capabilities of R. If you have no desire to use Emacs with R, then Rcmdr is a viable alternative.
3. Tinn-R.
   Tinn-R is a program that is used for editing R code under Windows. Tinn is an acronym standing for Tinn is not Notepad. It is intended as an enhanced replacement for Notepad. Tinn-R is a modified version of Tinn that is designed to make the eding and execution of R code simple and easy. Tinn-R is not a solution for Apple, Linux, or Unix, as it is a windows only program.

This web page describes how to install R, Rcmdr, Emacs, and Tinn-R on a Windows system, as well as directions on integrating Emacs and R using ESS.

The navigation menu on the left will take you to each installation directions. Note that you don't have to install Emacs, Rcmdr, or Tinn-R to use R, but the experience is so much better with them.

I have updated the installation of Emacs to use a CVS version of GNU Emacs for windows. This new version will allow the latest features of ESS (Emacs Speaks Statistics) to be used (most notably the toolbar). If you still prefer the official release, then click here for directions on installing it.