When you're writing scripts or text, it's nice to have a text editor that is optimized for writing code, with features like automatic color-coding of key words. The default text editor on Mac OS X and Linux is usually set to Vim, which is not famous for being intuitive. if you accidentally find yourself stuck in it, try typing the escape key, followed by ':q!' (colon, lower-case 'q', exclamation mark), then hitting Return to return to the shell. (This will lose any unsaved changes to the file.)
Bash is a commonly-used shell. Using a shell gives you more power to do more tasks more quickly with your computer.
R is a programming language that specializes in statistical computing. It is a powerful tool for exploratory data analysis. To interact with R, we will use RStudio, an interactive development environment (IDE).
SQL is a specialized programming language used with databases. We use a simple database manager called SQLite, either directly or through a browser plugin.
OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful tool for exploring and working with messy data.
Notepad++ is a popular free code editor for Windows. Be aware that you must add its installation directory to your system path in order to launch it from the command line (or have other tools like Git launch it for you). Please ask your instructor to help you do this.
Install Git (version control) and a Bash shell for Windows from the msysGit project's homepage. This will provide you with Bash in the Git Bash program.
Other tools used in Data Carpentry have been packaged up by Software Carpentry in an installer. This installer requires an active internet connection.
Install R by downloading and running this .exe file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.
Install the Firefox SQLite browser plugin described below.
Download the OpenRefine software described below.
The default shell in all versions of Mac OS X is bash,
so no need to install anything. You access bash from
the Terminal (found
in /Applications/Utilities
). You may want
to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.
We recommend
Text Wrangler or
Sublime Text.
In a pinch, you can use nano
,
which should be pre-installed.
Install R by downloading and running this .pkg file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.
sqlite3
comes pre-installed on Mac OS X.
Also install the Firefox SQLite browser plugin described below.
Download the OpenRefine software described below.
The default shell is usually bash
,
but if your machine is set up differently
you can run it by opening a terminal and typing bash
.
There is no need to install anything.
Kate is one option for Linux users.
In a pinch, you can use nano
,
which should be pre-installed.
You can download the binary files for your distribution
from CRAN. Or
you can use your package manager, e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu
run apt-get install r-base
. Also, please install
the
RStudio IDE.
sqlite3
comes pre-installed on Linux.
Also install the Firefox SQLite browser plugin described below.
Download the OpenRefine software described below.
Instead of using sqlite3
from the command line,
you may use this plugin
for Firefox instead.
To install it:
Head to the OpenRefine download page for information on how to install it. It will run through a browser, but will not need to use an internet connection, and your data will also be securely stored on your own computer.