I very recently learned about rig for co-installing and managing different R versions on my machine for different data analysis projects. It's so smooth to use!
My previous method for installing multiple R versions included using pkgutil --forget on my current R installation to trick the CRAN installer for the newer R version into not deleting the previous R version, and then running the (now not actively maintained) 3rd party RSwitch utility per this Posit Support Advanced Topics page.
However, the RStudio User Guide now directs users to rig, which I understand to be the recommended long-term solution.
Is there a plan to harmonize the Posit Support page with the RStudio User Guide? I worry that if people happen to get SEO'd to the out-of-date help page that they will miss out on rig.
Thanks, I made some updates to that support article to mention rig and also updated the minimum supported R version and the screenshot of the Choose R dialog on Windows.
Ah thanks for those updates! Do you think it would make sense to update the Mac OS X > R from CRAN subsection below to redirect folks to the new rig section above? I understand that rig elegantly solves the issue with the default Mac CRAN installer behavior that makes concurrent R installs hairy, so it might make sense to point people back to rig instead of the currently listed solutions there. If, like me, users were previously hacking concurrent CRAN installs, they can run rig system make-orthogonal to orthogonalize their existing R installs and then proceed as usual with rig.
(as a Mac user that's the section I'm attending to most)
I haven't ever installed R on my Mac with Homebrew/similar, so I can't speak to whether that method already smoothly handles concurrent R versions. If it doesn't, it might make sense to explicitly re-point all Mac users back to rig, not just the ones using CRAN installers?
My understanding is that those support pages are supposed to go away altogether, replaced by the user guide, so not sure why this page still exists. So before I make more edits I'll check into that.
I agree. Since the RStudio User Guide now recommends rig, it would make sense to update the older Posit Support article as well. Keeping both resources aligned would help new users avoid outdated workflows and reduce confusion for anyone who lands on the older page through search engines.