Installation Guide for Code Club

Modified

August 22, 2026

1 Overview

Here, you will find information about software installations you should do before joining a Code Club session.

In summary, you need R (the programming language itself) and an IDE (an editor to write and run R code in). In fall 2026, we will be using Positron as our IDE, so you won’t need RStudio.

If you run into issues or have questions, don’t hesitate to contact one of the Code Club organizers.

Using an OSU-managed computer? (Click to expand)

If you are using an OSU computer, you may not have the “administrative privileges” that are needed to install some software on your computer “the regular way”, via installers.

However, you should have an OSU application on your computer that allows you to install a selection of approved software, and that selection should include R, RStudio, and (increasingly) Positron. On Windows, this app is called “Software Center”, whereas on Mac, it is called “Ohio State Application Self Service” (names may vary).

If you can’t find that application, or have trouble installing the software this way, you should contact OSU IT to help you.

Note that both RStudio and Positron can also be installed for your user account only, which does not require administrative privileges — see the sections below.

2 Install R

Windows — Download and run this .exe file for the latest version of R from CRAN.
Mac — Download and run this .pkg file for the latest version of R from CRAN.

Already have R installed? (Click to expand)

Check your version of R: this information is printed to the console when you start R, and you can also get it by typing sessionInfo() and checking the first line of the output.
Currently (Fall 2026), we would recommend R version 4.4.0 or higher. (Positron requires at least R 4.2.)
To update R, see the bottom of this page for instructions.

3 Install Positron

Positron is the newer data science IDE (Integrated Development Environment) by Posit (the company behind RStudio). This is the IDE we will use in Code Club in fall 2026.

To install it, go to the Positron download page and download and run the installer for your operating system:

Windows — pick the “User install” installer (the “System install” is for machine-wide installations and does require administrative privileges). Choose the x64 version unless you have an ARM64 machine.
Mac — pick the Apple Silicon version if you have an M-series Mac (M1/M2/M3/M4), and the Intel version otherwise. macOS 11.0 or higher is required.

Positron does not come with R!

Positron is “just” an editor: it needs a separate R installation to run your code. So make sure you have installed R as well — the same R installation that you may already be using with RStudio is fine.

4 Appendix

4.1 Install RStudio

RStudio is Posit’s original IDE for R, and it has long been the de facto standard way of working with R.

To install RStudio, go to the RStudio download page and download and run the installer file for your operating system (.exe for Windows, .dmg for Mac).

No administrator rights needed

RStudio is now installed at the user level only, i.e. inside your own user account. This means you don’t need administrative privileges to install it, and there is no longer any reason to run the installer “as administrator” (older instructions, including previous versions of this page, said you should).

4.2 Use RStudio Server at OSC

Upon request (contact Jelmer), you can get access to the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) Classroom Project for Code Club (PAS1838). This way, you can code in RStudio from your browser rather than with a local installation. This is a good option if you prefer not to install anything or if you run into problems during installations.

Run RStudio Server from the OSC OnDemand website (Click to expand)

OSC OnDemand lets you access OSC resources through your browser and run applications like RStudio.

To get started, go to https://ondemand.osc.edu/ and log in with your OSC username and password.
Click on “Interactive Apps” in the blue top bar, and select “RStudio Server” (near the bottom).
Now, you’re on a page from which you can launch an RStudio server that will run on an OSC cluster. Select project PAS1838 in the dropdown menu and change the “Number of hours” to 2. Then click “Launch”.
You will be sent to a page where you can see the status of your “job” It usually starts running within seconds, and the color of the top bar will then switch from blue (“Queued” and then “Starting”) to green (“Running”).
Click “Connect to RStudio Server” at the bottom of the box, and an RStudio Server instance will open.

4.3 Use RStudio via Posit Cloud

Having trouble getting R and an IDE to work on your computer? You can also run RStudio in your browser with Posit Cloud, using their free tier:

Go to https://posit.cloud and click “Get Started”.
Select “Learn more” under “Cloud Free”.
Sign up for Cloud Free by creating an account, or by signing in with Google, GitHub, or Clever.
Create a new project with “New Project” > “New RStudio Project”.
You can now use R through RStudio on Posit Cloud!

4.4 Update an existing R installation

Consider updating R if you have an older version of R installed. You can check which version of R you have by looking at the first lines of output when running the following command inside R:

sessionInfo()

To update R:

Windows: You can update R from within R. The updateR() function will also take care of updating your packages:
```
install.packages("installr")
installr::updateR()
```
Mac: Download and install the latest .pkg file as if you were installing R for the first time.

Re-installing your packages after updating (Mac and Linux)

While the installr::updateR() function for Windows users takes care of reinstalling your packages along with updating R, Mac and Linux users will have to manually re-install their packages. Some people prefer to re-install these packages on the fly, which can end up being a way to get rid of packages you no longer use.

But if you want immediately reinstall all your packages, run this before you upgrade:

my_packages <- installed.packages()
saveRDS(my_packages, "my_packages.rds")

Then, after you’ve installed the latest R version:

my_packages <- readRDS("CurrentPackages.rds")
install.packages(my_packages[1, ])

This will only work for packages available on CRAN. Of course, you can check your list for Github-only and Bioconductor packages and then install those with their respective commands (see below). Yes, this can be a bit of a hassle!