Welding R and C++: A Tale of Two Programming Languages

This article compares cpp11armadillo and cpp11eigen, new R packages that integrate the powerful Armadillo and Eigen C++ libraries for linear algebra into the R programming environment. This article provides a detailed comparison between Armadillo and Eigen speed and syntax. The goal of these packages is to simplify a part of the process of solving bottlenecks by using C++ within R, these offer additional ease of integration for users who require high-performance linear algebra operations in their R workflows. This document aims to discuss the tradeoff between computational efficiency and accessibility.