ggpointless
ggpointless keeps adding the ggplot2 layers nobody else bothered to write.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
artoo vs smam
A side-by-side editorial comparison of artoo and smam — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
artoo vs smam: at a glance
What is artoo?
artoo makes any-to-any clinical dataset conversion lossless by construction.
artoo reads and writes SAS XPORT, CDISC Dataset-JSON, NDJSON, Parquet and RDS around one canonical metadata model, so a conversion between any two formats carries labels, CDISC types, lengths, display formats, controlled-terminology references and sort keys intact. It is pure R with no SAS or Java runtime. It reached CRAN at 0.1.1 and has spent 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 on the character-encoding edges.
What is smam?
Animal-movement models in R, where new stochastic processes arrive years apart.
smam fits statistical models of animal movement, covering moving-resting processes with and without measurement error, moving-resting-handling, and moving-moving processes, with simulation, point estimation and variance estimation for each. The last three releases are pure upkeep: guarding Rf_error calls after an Rcpp update, a maintainer email change, and a compiler warning fix. The substantive work in this window is 0.7.0, which added estimate and vcov generics across all fit functions, and 0.6.0, which added the moving-moving process.
artoo vs smam: editorial side-by-side
artoo
2.5INFRA · APIS
artoo makes any-to-any clinical dataset conversion lossless by construction.
◆ Current state
artoo reads and writes SAS XPORT, CDISC Dataset-JSON, NDJSON, Parquet and RDS around one canonical metadata model, so a conversion between any two formats carries labels, CDISC types, lengths, display formats, controlled-terminology references and sort keys intact. It is pure R with no SAS or Java runtime. It reached CRAN at 0.1.1 and has spent 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 on the character-encoding edges.
◆ Where it's heading
Recent work is all about text that does not survive a format change. 0.1.3 adds an invalid_encoding dimension to artoo_checks() that flags bytes which are not valid UTF-8 before a writer aborts on them, accepts the SAS OEM/DOS encoding names, and gives the writers on_invalid = "translit" and "fold" so smart punctuation and accented characters resolve to pinned ASCII instead of failing. The fold tables ship as data specifically so the result is identical on every platform, which is the same determinism argument behind C-locale row sorting in 0.1.0.
◆ Prediction
The new WLATIN1-to-UTF-8 migration article and the width warning on write_xpt() point the next attention at length and truncation semantics rather than at additional formats. These notes name no further target format.
smam
0.0INFRA · APIS
Animal-movement models in R, where new stochastic processes arrive years apart.
◆ Current state
smam fits statistical models of animal movement, covering moving-resting processes with and without measurement error, moving-resting-handling, and moving-moving processes, with simulation, point estimation and variance estimation for each. The last three releases are pure upkeep: guarding Rf_error calls after an Rcpp update, a maintainer email change, and a compiler warning fix. The substantive work in this window is 0.7.0, which added estimate and vcov generics across all fit functions, and 0.6.0, which added the moving-moving process.
◆ Where it's heading
This package grows by adding process models, and it does so rarely. Between the moving-moving process in 2021 and now, the only interface-level change has been the 0.7.0 generics that gave every fit function a common way to retrieve estimates and their covariance, which is consolidation of an accumulated collection rather than expansion of it. The three releases since are entirely reactive to toolchain and CRAN pressure, and they arrive in step with the maintainer's other package coga, which received the same Rcpp guard within twenty minutes on the same day.
◆ Prediction
Expect further releases to be CRAN and Rcpp maintenance unless a new movement process is published, which is what has historically prompted a minor version here. The generics added in 0.7.0 give any future process model a ready-made interface to slot into.
Alternatives to artoo and smam
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either artoo or smam.
mpactr
mpactr spent two spring releases normalizing case in metadata after users kept tripping on it.
surveytidy
surveytidy taught every dplyr verb to operate on a whole collection of surveys at once.
surveycore
surveycore declared its API stable with every survey design type covered.
PEIMAN2
PEIMAN2 cut its annotation database loose from its release cycle without breaking CRAN.
prospectr
prospectr spent its biggest release in years fixing spectra it had been quietly mangling.
Recent activity from artoo and smam
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 28d agoartooEncoding checks and translit/fold modes for the writers
- 1mo agoartoonoLD check fix; codec unchanged
- 2mo agoartooInitial CRAN release after resubmission
- 2mo agoartooLossless any-to-any CDISC dataset conversion in pure R ⚡
- 5mo agosmamRcpp attributes regenerated to guard Rf_error calls
- 2y agosmamMaintainer email updated
- 2y agosmamCompiler format-security warning resolved
- 3y agosmamestimate and vcov generics unify all fit functions
- 5y agosmamMoving-moving process added with simulation and estimation ⚡
- 5y agosmamVariance estimators adjusted; example dataset added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between artoo and smam?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. artoo is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is artoo better than smam?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. artoo is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to artoo?
Top artoo alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "artoo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/artoo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to smam?
Top smam alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "smam alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/smam for the full list with editorial commentary on each.