ggpointless
ggpointless keeps adding the ggplot2 layers nobody else bothered to write.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
checkhelper vs valr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of checkhelper and valr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-packages
checkhelper vs valr: at a glance
What is checkhelper?
checkhelper grew from a check wrapper into a CRAN pre-submission auditor.
1.0.0 added a whole audit_* family — audit_downloads(), audit_description(), audit_dontrun() and audit_citation() — each parsing package source statically and returning a tibble of hits paired with a suggested fix. The package is now defending that position: 1.0.1 rc1 is a submission candidate answering a CRAN archival notice, after roxygen2 8.x moved DESCRIPTION's RoxygenNote field and broke a find_missing_tags() test fixture.
What is valr?
valr's interval verbs now read genomic files in place instead of demanding a loaded tibble.
valr reimplements bedtools-style genome interval arithmetic as tidyverse verbs backed by C++. Its long project has been closing the behavioural gap with bedtools — the book-ended interval semantics finally match in 0.10.0, three releases after the deprecation began. The July release also ends the assumption that intervals must be in memory: bed_map(), bed_intersect(), bed_subtract(), bed_coverage() and bed_window() accept a bigWig or bigBed path or URL where an interval table used to go.
checkhelper vs valr: editorial side-by-side
checkhelper
2.5INFRA · APIS
checkhelper grew from a check wrapper into a CRAN pre-submission auditor.
◆ Current state
1.0.0 added a whole audit_* family — audit_downloads(), audit_description(), audit_dontrun() and audit_citation() — each parsing package source statically and returning a tibble of hits paired with a suggested fix. The package is now defending that position: 1.0.1 rc1 is a submission candidate answering a CRAN archival notice, after roxygen2 8.x moved DESCRIPTION's RoxygenNote field and broke a find_missing_tags() test fixture.
◆ Where it's heading
The design commitment is static analysis — AST walks via getParseData(), line-by-line Rd reading, no eval() and no namespace loading — so the tool can report on a package it never runs. That commitment is what made the roxygen2 8.x break survivable: the audit pipeline itself was verified correct under 8.1.0 and only the test scaffolding had to go, now guarded by a dedicated regression test. fix_globals(write = TRUE) is being sanded down in parallel, no longer flattening per-function grouping comments or writing a degenerate empty globalVariables() shell.
◆ Prediction
The immediate move is the 1.0.1 submission itself, clearing the archival notice. Beyond that, each additional CRAN incoming-check rule remains a candidate for another audit_* function; the open question these notes still leave is whether the family ever gets a single combined entry point.
valr
0.0INFRA · APIS
valr's interval verbs now read genomic files in place instead of demanding a loaded tibble.
◆ Current state
valr reimplements bedtools-style genome interval arithmetic as tidyverse verbs backed by C++. Its long project has been closing the behavioural gap with bedtools — the book-ended interval semantics finally match in 0.10.0, three releases after the deprecation began. The July release also ends the assumption that intervals must be in memory: bed_map(), bed_intersect(), bed_subtract(), bed_coverage() and bed_window() accept a bigWig or bigBed path or URL where an interval table used to go.
◆ Where it's heading
Two arcs converge here. One is compatibility: min_overlap arrived with a deprecation warning in 0.9.0 and its default flipped from 0 to 1 in 0.10.0, so book-ended intervals are excluded by default as bedtools does, with the internal calculations in bed_closest() and friends deliberately left counting them. The other is the file-backed path, which grew out of the cpp11bigwig dependency adopted in 0.8.3 for read_bigwig() and re-exported in 0.9.0 — reading a file became querying one. Underneath, the C++ base keeps getting lighter: Rcpp swapped for cpp11, rlang cut to a single function, per-group memory copies removed from three verbs.
◆ Prediction
Only five verbs take a file argument today and bed_closest(), bed_glyph() and the statistical verbs do not, so extending the file-backed path across the rest of the API is the obvious follow-up. The deprecated tibble re-exports and the now-defunct n_fields argument suggest continued removal of the compatibility layer in the next minor release.
Alternatives to checkhelper and valr
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 checkhelper or valr.
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.
See all checkhelper alternatives → · See all valr alternatives →
Recent activity from checkhelper and valr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agocheckhelpercheckhelper 1.0.1 rc1 (CRAN submission candidate)
- 1mo agovalrInterval verbs read bigWig and bigBed files directly ⚡
- 3mo agocheckhelperA static audit_* family for CRAN pre-submission checks ⚡
- 7mo agovalrbed_slop() and bed_flank() preserve input row order
- 8mo agovalrmin_overlap introduced; C++ backend moves from Rcpp to cpp11
- 1y agovalrTest updated for ggplot2 3.6.0
- 1y agovalrread_bigwig() switches to cpp11bigwig; read_gtf() deprecated
- 1y agovalrCRAN Rd link NOTE and maintainer email change
- 2y agocheckhelperTest fixes for roxygen2 changes
- 3y agocheckhelpercheckhelper 0.1.0 - First CRAN Release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between checkhelper and valr?
Both compete on the same themes — r-packages — within Infra & APIs. checkhelper 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 checkhelper better than valr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. checkhelper 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 checkhelper?
Top checkhelper alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "checkhelper alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/checkhelper for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to valr?
Top valr alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "valr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/valr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.