Once R is installed on your computer, the software is executed by launching the corresponding executable. The prompt, by default ‘>’, indicates that R is waiting for your commands. Under Windows using the program Rgui.exe, some commands (accessing the on-line help, opening files, . . .) can be executed via the pull-down menus. At this stage, a new user is likely to wonder “What do I do now?” It is indeed very useful to have a few ideas on how R works when it is used for the first time, and this is what we will see now. We shall see first briefly how R works. Then, I will describe the “assign” operator which allows creating objects, how to manage objects in memory, and finally how to use the on-line help which is very useful when running R.
This document has been released into the public domain.
