RStudio: A Platform-Independent IDE for R and Sweave

1. OVERVIEW One frequently voiced complaint about the R programming environment (R Development Core Team, 2011) is its rather ‘clunky’ user interface and the fact that multiple interfaces exist and differ across platforms. Even seasoned R users acknowledge that there is room for improvement, and there have been a number of attempts made to create a more user-friendly interface. However, it is widely acknowledged that there remains room for improvement in this area. Users of R also tend to be users of , and a small but growing subset tend also to be users of Sweave. It is safe to say that interface-related complaints levied against R are also tossed at and Sweave for similar (and often well-justified) reasons. However, a recent entrant is poised to resolve these issues not only for R but also for this trifecta of programs that tend to be jointly used by econometricians and academics (i.e. R, Sweave, and ). The new entrant is titled ‘RStudio’ (see www.rstudio.org). It is currently in beta status (version 0.94 (RStudio Beta 3) as of this writing) and was publicly released on 28 February 2011. However, it is quite stable and currently suitable for general use. Like R, it is free and open. This review discusses the aspects of RStudio that are likely to be of most interest to econometricians. Naturally, this would also be of interest to academics using R in the classroom, as students would likely be more comfortable with this interface than existing ones, while the platform-independent nature would minimize cross-platform issues encountered by new users.