Setting up external versions of R in RLink for Mathematica
RLink is Mathematica’s interface to the R language – a feature that has been extremely popular since its debut in Mathematica version 9. It’s a great package but has one or two issues. For example, RLink makes use of a built in version of R which is currently stuck at the rather old version 2.14. Official support for the use of external versions of R and adding third-party libraries varies by operating system and version of Mathematica. Windows support is great — OS X support, not so much.
Expert Mathematica user Szabolcs Horvát has written the definitive guide on how to get RLink up and running with the latest version of R on all three major operating systems, building on earlier work by Leonid Shifrin and members of the Mathematica Stack Exchange community. Thanks to this work, we can now enjoy any version of R we like with Mathematica!