I use Python for my coding work usually and R occasionally. And I’m currently learning Julia. Spyder (for Python), Juno (for Julia) and RStudio (obviously for R) were my usual editors. But now I use Jupyter for all three languages. So I would like to explain the process of integrating R and Julia into JupyterLab because Python is the default in Jupyter.

I use elementary OS. Thus Python 3 comes pre-installed. Otherwise you have to install Python along with pip and need to add both binaries’ locations to PATH. Following things are for Gnu/Linux distributions based on Ubuntu/Debian. Change commands to your system accordingly.

Install JupyterLab

JupyterLab can be installed using pip:
$ sudo pip3 install jupyterlab

Running jupyterlab in terminal will open JupyterLab in a browser window.

Install R & Support for Jupyter

R binaries for Gnu/Linux, Windows & Mac are available at CRAN. Download and install R. Add the installation path to PATH if required.

For Gnu/Linux distros, there is a better way.

  1. Add GPG key:
    $ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9
  2. Add R repo:
    $ sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu bionic-cran40/' If you are not using bionic (Ubuntu 18.04), change the above code according to your version.
  3. Update repos and install R:
    $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install r-base

Setting Up Jupyter for R

Running R in terminal, will open R interactive shell. But if you are using Gnu/Linux, you have to do sudo R to install packages. Anyway, open R shell. Then:

  1. Install IRkernel:
    > install.packages('IRkernel')
  2. Make the kernel available to Jupyter:
    > IRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE)
    Setting user=TRUE will limit installation only for the current user. After doing these, Jupyter can be used to create R notebooks.

Install and Set Up Julia

Julia binaries are available at julialang.org. For Gnu/Linux, don’t use snap as it provides older version. Julia shows significant changes over versions. After installation/extraction, add Julia executable to PATH.

Install & Set Up IJulia

IJulia provides Jupyter support to Julia. To install IJulia, open Julia by typing julia in shell. Switch to Pkg mode by hitting ].
(@v1.5) pkg> add IJulia After installation, to make Julia available in Jupyter, build IJulia.
(@v1.5) pkg> build IJulia

So Jupyter is ready to use with Python, R and Julia.

References