• R is a language, a software and a philosophy
• R is open, free, transparent and flexible
• R is one of the most active languages/programmes

• Free software for statistics and visualisation
• Open-source GNU project, based on S (John Chambers)
• primarily accessible via command line
• High-level, interpreted, functional, object-oriented

Everything that is called in R is a function.

Everything that is created in R is an object.

• R can be used for
  • Calculations and data visualisation
  • Image and sound manipulation
  • Internet and email scraping
  • Generation of reports
  • Writing of books
  • Generation of presentations

• we do not explicitly see the data,
• we explicitly write down what is done,
• we have to think about data structure,
• we combine functions almost all the time,
• we usually generate graphical (not tabular) output,

• we can easily work without touching the mouse.

• R is object oriented and vector based.

• Time: 5 minutes
  • Which five keywords describe R best?
  • What are pros and cons of "free and open software"?
  • Start RStudio, use R as a calculator
    • Calculate the volume of a sphere with 5 cm radius
    • Calculate the square root of the square of the cosine of a number

• RStudio is a graphical user and developer interface for R
• A second skin to work more efficiently with R