Chapter 3 Software for class

Objectives:

  1. To familiarize ourselves with the main software used in class
  2. To install programs used for basic computational biology
  3. To perform basic tests of functionality of these programs

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, we are going to use R, RStudio and the basic UNIX command line for our exercises, as well to view and edit files.

For this course we WON’T need to install R or RStudio on our computers! We will use a webpage that has R and RStudio. That being said, I’ll leave this guide in case you want to install it in the future.

3.1 How to install R?

  1. Open an internet browser and go to www.r-project.org

  2. Click the “download R” link in the middle of the page.

Downloading R
Downloading R
  1. Select a CRAN location (a mirror site) and click the corresponding link.
Downloading R
Downloading R
  1. Click on the “Download R for” link that matches your operating system, at the top of the page.
Links for R
Links for R
  • For Windows users: Click on the “install R for the first time” link at the top of the page. Run the .exe file and follow the installation instructions.
  • For MacOS X users: Click on the “R-4.0.2.pkg” link to download the install package. Run the .pkg file and follow the installation instructions.

3.2 How to install RStudio?

  1. Go to www.rstudio.com and click on the “Download” link.

Links for R 2. Click on “Download RStudio Desktop (FREE)” in the lower part of the page.

Links for R
Links for R
  1. Click on the version recommended for your system. save the .exe/.dmg file on your computer, double-click it to open, and then drag and drop it to your applications folder.