[Rcpp-devel] arma::mat and Rcpp::NumericMatrix

[Christian Gunning]

Jeff,

A few random comments in addition to Dirk's sound advice:

1.  I recommend using bigger matrices for testing just to get a feel.
For testing loop speed, you want the proportion of loop time to be
*very high* compared to the R interpreter overhead, resolution of your
timer, etc.   Here, the extra as<arma::mat> and wrap() in armaSrc may
add appreciable execution time relative to the loop work -- only
testing will tell :)

2.  Another advantage of big matrices is testing the relative impact
of memory copying versus in-place modification.  Both Rcpp and
RcppArmadillo allow for both -- for the former, search the quickref
for "clone" for an intro.  With RcppArmadillo, in-place is a little
more involved, but look for this line:
"However, if copy_aux_mem is set to false, the matrix will instead
directly use the auxiliary memory (ie. no copying). This is faster,
but can be dangerous unless you know what you're doing!"
http://arma.sourceforge.net/docs.html#Mat

3.  I've modified the below to move the +op from the conditional
evaluation to the definition.  For small thetaEndIndex or simple ops,
this won't matter, but for theatEndIndex = 1e12 and something like a
vec.size() accessor, it can make a noticeable difference.  In general,
it's a good habit not to put ops in the conditional unless you really
need them.

> armaSrc <- '
...
>        int thetaEndIndex = as<int>(sthetaEndIndex) - 1;
...
>        for (int i = thetaStartIndex + 1; i <= thetaEndIndex; i++) {

best,
Christian

-- 
A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal – Panama!