This doesn't create a copy, it just provides a new version of the class
which provides behavior for a contiguous submatrix of the big.matrix.
Non-contiguous submatrices are not supported.
A big.matrix which is actually a submatrix of a larger big.matrix.
It is not a physical copy. Only contiguous blocks may form a submatrix.
Arguments
x
either a big.matrix or a descriptor.
firstRow
the first row of the submatrix.
lastRow
the last row of the submatrix if not NULL.
firstCol
the first column of the submatrix.
lastCol
the last column of the submatrix if not NULL.
backingpath
required path to the filebacked object, if applicable.
Author
John W. Emerson and Michael J. Kane
Details
The sub.big.matrix function allows a user to create a big.matrix
object that references a contiguous set of columns and rows of another
big.matrix object.
The is.sub.big.matrix function returns TRUE if the specified
argument is a sub.big.matrix object and return FALSE
otherwise.