2.1 What is R?

R is an open-source program that allows you to perform a wide variety of statistical tasks. At its core, it is a modification of the S and Scheme programming languages, making it not only flexible but also fast. R is available for Windows, Linux and OS X, and is updated regularly. In its basic form, R uses a simple command line interface. To make it more friendly, you can use one of the integrated development environments (IDEs) such as RStudio, Jupyter and R Commander. These environments not only look better but also offer some additional practical features. In this book, we will use RStudio as it is (in our opinion) the best-looking and working IDE available.