Chapter 1 Prerequisites

This course requires no prior experience in programming. Yet, if you have some programming experience (e.g. SPSS, Stata, HTML), it will be helpful. R, Python and JavaScript are all interpreted languages. In other words, the programs do not need compilation but will run in an environment to get the outputs.

All packages and accounts are free and supported by open sources. It is recommended students bring their own computers (not mobile device) running MacOS, Linux or Windows operating systems.

Recommended software and IDE’s:

  1. R version 3.6 (https://cran.r-project.org)
  2. RStudio version 1.2.x (https://www.rstudio.com)
  3. Anaconda 3 version 1.9.7 (https://www.anaconda.com)*
  4. Text editor of own choice (e.g. Atom, Sublime Text, Ultraedit)

Recommended websites/accounts:

  1. GitHub (https://github.com)
  2. RStudio Cloud

(*) – Python 3.x only.