Getting started

This course offers lecture, discussion, and hands-on exercises on topics about efficient computing for spatial data models. We encourage you to work along with us on the exercises, which blend C/C++, FORTRAN, and R. To participate fully in the exercises, you’ll need the most recent version of R (3.5.1) and RStudio Desktop (1.1.456) installed. We will make of use of RStutio’s new Terminal feature to simplify iteration with participants using different operating systems.

Additionally, you’ll need to install some development software (e.g., compilers and efficient matrix libraries). Follow the instructions here to install Rtools, XCode, and r-base-dev for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, respectively. You do not need the latex libraries for our course.

For Mac OS X users, for some reason even when you install the most recent XCode via the App Store it does not include the most recent version of the clang compiler. So you will need to do the additional step of opening a terminal and typing xcode-select --install then agreeing to questions in the subsequent install dialog windows.

For Windows users, when installing Rtools please keep all suggested install settings with the addition of checking the box “Add rtools to system Path” in the “Select Additional Tasks” dialog window (it is not checked by default).

We will also make use of the the Rmpi package. An overview and installation instructions for different operating systems can be found here. Getting Rmpi to work with MPI can be a bit involved on some machines, so you’ll want to get that sorted out before the course.

Course schedule Materials (download all in one zip or tar.gz)