cpp11 - welding R and C++

Abstract

R and S have a long history of interacting with compiled languages.

The Rcpp package has been a widely successful project, however over the years a number of issues and additional C++ features have arisen. Modifying Rcpp to fix or include these would require a great deal of work, or in some cases would be impossible without severely breaking backwards compatibility.

cpp11 is a ground up rewrite of C++ bindings to R with different design trade-offs and features.

This talk will focus on the new features of cpp11 including:

• Enforcing copy-on-write semantics.
• Improving the safety of using the R API from C++ code.
• Supporting ALTREP objects.
• Using UTF-8 strings everywhere.
• Applying newer C++11 features.

We will also discuss the mechanics of transitioning packages from Rcpp to cpp11 and why we feel cpp11 is a solid foundation to build upon in the years ahead.