big.matrix-class: Class "big.matrix"
Description
The big.matrix class is designed for matrices with
elements of type double, integer, short, or char.
A big.matrix acts much like a traditional Rmatrix, but helps protect
the user from many inadvertant memory-consuming pitfalls of traditional Rmatrices and data frames. The objects are allocated to shared memory,
and if file-backing is used they may exceed virtual memory in size. Sadly,
32-bit operating system contraints -- largely Windows and some MacOS versions --
will be a limiting factor with file-backed matrices; 64-bit operating systems
are recommended.Objects from the Class
Unlike many Robjects, objects should not be created by calls of the form
new("big.matrix", ...). The functions big.matrix()
and filebacked.big.matrix() are intended for the user.