Use Eclipse as IDE for R under Windows

Background

Eclipse is an open source Integrated Development Environment (IDE). As with Microsoft's Visual Studio product, Eclipse is programming language-agnostic and supports any language having a suitable plugin for the IDE platform. For Eclipse, the R language plugin is StatET.

The StatET plugin enables Eclipse to connect to R. You may have been using R console or a simple editor like notepad or wordpad to write and submit R programs to R before. With Eclipse and the StatET plugin for R, you will use the rich editing environment provided by Eclipse and the StatET plugin to write and submit those programs to R from within the Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment). The result will be a better, less error-prone development environment for your R software development.

Above figure shows Eclipse, StatET with R, and the R debugger (bottom window) at work. The R debugger is an R package library and has its own graphical output window separate from Eclipse.

Install Eclipse

• Download the latest stable Eclipse release (I use Eclipse Classic 4.2.1, 183 MB, as of 20-Oct-2012). For 64-bit Windows be sure to download and install the 64-bit version of Eclipse AND install the 64-bit JRE (Java Runtime Environment). Once downloaded and extracted, copy folders and files under the obtained Eclipse folder (for example, eclipse-SDK-4.2.1-win32-x86_64) to your desired installation location, such as C:\eclipse. Add a desktop shortcut to the Eclipse executable (c:\eclipse\eclipse.exe) if you like.
  
  
• Your system may already have Java installed, in which case you can skip these Java installation steps. 64-bit Java runtime environments (JREs) are designated explicitly on the java.com website as 64-bit, for example 'Windows 7/XP/Vista/2003/2008 (64-bit)' or similar. If you do not see the 64-bit JRE offering for Windows then you are likely running 32-bit Windows and should use the 32-bit JRE and Eclipse.
  
  
• If you are running a 64-bit Windows and you still do not see the 64-bit offerings on java.com then switch to another browser (64-bit).
  
  

Install StatET

1. From the Eclipse menu bar click Help -> Install New Software
2. Click the 'Add' button. The "Add Site" dialog appears
3. Type in a friendly name for your remote resource, such as StatET
4. Paste the URL (http://download.walware.de/eclipse-3.8, this is the latest version available at StatET website, as of 20-Oct-2012) into the 'Location' box, make sure to check the option of Contact all update sites during install to find required software, then click 'OK'
5. Select (check) the package components that you want to install, then click 'Next'
6. A review screen showing your selection(s) displays. Click 'Next'
7. Accept the license agreement, then click 'Finish'
8. Now Eclipse will install StatET, but it will take a few minutes. During the installation you may be asked to accept a digital certificate from Eclipse.org.

Configure the StatET Eclipse plugin

1. Install R, if you need to. NOTE: as far as Eclipse is concerned, it makes no difference if you run 32 or 64-bit R. Just be sure that you identify 32 or 64-bit R to Eclipse, which we do in the next steps (among other things).
   
   
2. From the Eclipse menu bar click Help -> Cheat Sheets: StatET: R in Eclipse to put up the official help. This is a handy, built-in guideline, but some of the steps inaccurately describe the menu choices (and one reason why I wrote these instructions). It is a good reference, though, for your later work, so keep it in mind. Click the 'Cancel' button to close the Cheat Sheet Selection dialog.
   
   
3. From the Eclipse menu bar click Window -> Preferences: StatET : Run/Debug: R Interaction: Select 'New Console Inside Eclipse' for the 'Connector used to run R code'. Note that this is the default so it might already be this way. This is how I run mine. Be sure to click 'Apply' if you change the setting.
   
   
4. Back in the left pane click 'R Environments' (StatET : Run/Debug: R Environments, which is directly above the 'R Interaction' of the previous step). The 'R Environments' pane now appears on the right.
   
   



• Click the pane's 'Add' button. The 'Add R Environment Configuration' dialog appears.
  
  
• Type in a friendly name in the 'Name' box, such as R.x64 2.15.1 or whatever your R version is, for example.
  
  
• For the 'Location (R_HOME)' box, paste in the path to your R install directory, for example C:\Program Files\R\R-2.15.1. Make sure the 'Architecture' field is set to your R type (32 or 64-bit), such as x86_64.
  
  
• Click 'OK' to save your changes and close the dialog, which returns us to the 'R Environments' pane, which now shows our newly created R environment.
  
  
• Click 'Apply' and 'OK' to save and close the 'R Environments' pane.
  
  
5. From the Eclipse menu bar click Run -> Run Configurations. The 'Run Configurations' dialog box appears.
• In the left pane click 'R Console', right click and select 'New' to define a new console entry with a friendly name in the 'Name' box, such as 'MyConsole'.
  
  
• Under the 'Main' tab ensure that 'Launch Type' is set properly for your configuration. If you are uncertain, choose 'Rterm' (this selection is VERY IMPORTANT).
  
  
• For 'Working Directory' just provide a path to your projects directory, for example C:\d2\SOFTWARE_DEVELOPMENT\Research\R\Projects
  
  
• No further changes are required, but you can check to make sure that the 'R Environment' under the next tab ('R Config') is set to that environment you named previously.
  
  
• Click 'Apply' and then 'Close' to close the dialog



6. Set perspective for R project If you can not see the R-project under File --> New, switch Eclipse's perspective to StatET by clicking Window --> Open Perspective --> Other --> StatET.

Testing the Eclipse/StatET/R IDE Configuration

1. From the Eclipse menu bar click File -> New -> R-Project.
   A 'New R-Project' dialog box appears, so give the new project a name like 'test'.
   
   
2. From the Eclipse menu bar, click File -> New -> R-Script File. Name your new script and click 'Finish'.
   A new script window appears in the Eclipse IDE.
   
   
3. Paste in or type some R test code, for example:
   
   

   # TODO: Add comment
   # 
   # Author: mark qu
   ################################################################
   # some test code...
   a = 2
   b = 3
   
   c = a+b
   c

   
   
4. To run the script, click inside the R script window to give it focus. Then, from the Eclipse menu bar, click Run -> Run : R Script in R Submitting Directly -OR- R Script in R via Source. You can then execute by simply clicking Run -> Run. You can also select the Run icon (green ball with the white triangle inside) from the Eclipse toolbar.