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<h1 class="entry-title title">R Package Development on Windows</h1>
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<span class="screen-reader">Posted on </span>
<time class="date" datetime="2018-12-18T00:00:00Z">2018-12-18</time>
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<p>Windows 10 is a totally capable platform for developing R applications and packages and collaborating with others on <a href="https://github.com/">Github</a>. You just need to install and configure the right tools.</p>
<h1 id="r">R</h1>
<p>First (duh!) you need to install R. Download an installer from <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/">the Windows downloads page</a>. If you’ve already installed R but are not on the latest released version, it’s not a bad idea to uninstall what you have and install the latest.</p>
<h1 id="rtools">RTools</h1>
<p>Download the version of <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/">RTools</a> corresponding to the version of R you just installed and run the installer.</p>
<p>The default selections are all fine, except one: <strong>make sure the checkbox labeled “Add rtools to system PATH” is checked when you see it.</strong></p>
<p>If you don’t select this option, you will have problems building R packages in RStudio later.</p>
<h1 id="rstudio">RStudio</h1>
<p>The RStudio IDE works nicely on Windows and can be <a href="https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/">downoloaded for free</a>.</p>
<h1 id="chocolatey">Chocolatey</h1>
<p><a href="https://chocolatey.org/">Chocolatey</a> is a package manager for Windows that facilitates installing and upgrading free software like <code>git</code> and <code>ssh</code>, which are two tools I suggest installing.</p>
<p>To install it, just <a href="https://chocolatey.org/install">follow the instructions</a>.</p>
<h1 id="git"><code>git</code></h1>
<p>Now that you’ve installed Chocolatey, installing <code>git</code> is a cinch. In an <em>Administrative</em> PowerShell window, run the following commands:</p>
<pre><code>choco install git</code></pre>
<h1 id="ssh-optional"><code>ssh</code> (optional)</h1>
<p>On Github, you have the option of cloning repositories using either <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/which-remote-url-should-i-use/">HTTPS or SSH</a>. I personally prefer SSH, because I clone repos all the time and I don’t like to be constantly prompted for my username and password.</p>
<p>If you’re new to <code>git</code> and Github, I suggest skipping this step. Otherwise, you can install <code>ssh</code> with <code>choco install openssh</code>.</p>
<h1 id="configure-git">Configure <code>git</code></h1>
<p>Windows uses a different character than Mac or Linux to represent the end of a line — the character inserted when you press <em>Enter</em> — which can make it difficult to collaborate on text files with users on a different platform.</p>
<p>For those on Windows, <code>git</code> can be configured to automatically to handle this difference by running the following command in a (non-Administrator) PowerShell:</p>
<pre><code>git config --global core.autocrlf true</code></pre>
<p>For details on this setting, check out the <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/dealing-with-line-endings/">Github documentation on the subject</a>.</p>
<h1 id="configure-rstudio-to-use-git">Configure RStudio to use <code>git</code></h1>
<p>Now that <code>git</code> is installed and configured, you can configure RStudio to use it. This will allow you to drive <code>git</code> from RStudio, without necessarily using the command line.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li>Open RStudio</li>
<li>Under the <strong>Tools</strong> menu, select <strong>Global Options</strong></li>
<li>Click on <strong>Git/SVN</strong> in the resulting Options window</li>
<li>Select <strong>Enable version control interface for RStudio projects</strong></li>
<li>Next to <strong>Git executable</strong> click <strong>Browse</strong></li>
<li>Navigate to <code>C:\Program Files\Git\bin\git.exe</code> and click <strong>Open</strong>. This is where Chocolatey installed <code>git</code>.</li>
<li>Click the <strong>Apply</strong> button and restart RStudio</li>
</ol>
<p>Now in RStudio, you should see a tab called <code>Git</code> in the top right quadrant of the window. This tab is the entrypoint for staging, diffing, committing, and pushing to Github.</p>
<p>Additionally, you can now use RStudio to clone projects from Github:</p>
<ol type="1">
<li>Under the <strong>File</strong> menu select <strong>New Project</strong></li>
<li>On the resulting window select <strong>Version Control</strong></li>
<li>On the window after that, select <strong>Git</strong>, and paste in the clone URL from the project’s Github page</li>
</ol>
<h1 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h1>
<p>Congrats! You’re all set up to develop R applications, develop R packages, and interact with Github with the best of’em. From here, you can install standard R tools like the <code>devtools</code> and <code>usethis</code> packages.</p>
<p>For an introduction to R package development, RStudio’s <a href="https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/200486488-Developing-Packages-with-RStudio">Developing Packages with RStudio</a> is a good introduction.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading, I hope you have fun writing and sharing code!</p>
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