mice
mice can finally predict, not just estimate, from multiply imputed data.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
dscore vs smam
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dscore and smam — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dscore vs smam: at a glance
What is dscore?
The D-score reference implementation rebuilt its measurement foundation on seven countries.
dscore computes the D-score and DAZ, the GSED developmental measurement used in child-health research, and it is the reference implementation rather than one option among several. The package is at 2.1.0 after a dense 2025: the default key moved from three-country to seven-country validation data, the licence moved from AGPL to Apache 2.0, and the 2.1.0 line added per-country references, full BSID-III coverage and domain-level scoring. Breaking changes are routine here and always come with a documented fallback key or algorithm argument.
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.
dscore vs smam: editorial side-by-side
dscore
0.0INFRA · APIS
The D-score reference implementation rebuilt its measurement foundation on seven countries.
◆ Current state
dscore computes the D-score and DAZ, the GSED developmental measurement used in child-health research, and it is the reference implementation rather than one option among several. The package is at 2.1.0 after a dense 2025: the default key moved from three-country to seven-country validation data, the licence moved from AGPL to Apache 2.0, and the 2.1.0 line added per-country references, full BSID-III coverage and domain-level scoring. Breaking changes are routine here and always come with a documented fallback key or algorithm argument.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs from correcting the instrument to broadening who can use it. The 2020-2024 releases were item-table repair and error correction, including a scale-factor bug that altered published standard errors; from 1.11.0 onward the work is distribution — a permissive licence, more instruments mapped in, and references resolved per country rather than pooled. That combination points at national-survey and app-embedded use rather than research-only use.
◆ Prediction
The 2.0.0 notes state that groundwork was laid for extending D-scores to older children, and 2.0.0 still tells users to fall back to gsed2406 for instruments outside GSED SF and LF. Expect the next releases to close that gap by mapping more instruments into gsed2510, with the older-age extension the likeliest headline feature.
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 dscore 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 dscore or smam.
PINstimation
A market-microstructure toolkit that keeps adding estimators as the papers land.
nzilbb.vowels
A vowel-analysis package trimming dependencies after an email address got it archived.
emuR
The R half of the EMU speech database system, fixing what was quietly broken.
BAS
A Bayesian model-averaging package spending its 2.0 on memory, not methods.
tidyplots
tidyplots keeps rebuilding its own foundations rather than layering around them.
Recent activity from dscore and smam
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agosmamRcpp attributes regenerated to guard Rf_error calls
- 7mo agodscoredscore 2.1.0
- 10mo agodscoredscore 2.0.0 ⚡
- 10mo agodscoredscore 1.11.0 ⚡
- 1y agodscoredscore 1.10.0
- 2y agodscoredscore 1.9.0
- 2y agosmamMaintainer email updated
- 2y agosmamCompiler format-security warning resolved
- 3y agosmamestimate and vcov generics unify all fit functions
- 3y agodscoredscore 1.7.0
- 5y agosmamMoving-moving process added with simulation and estimation ⚡
- 5y agosmamVariance estimators adjusted; example dataset added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dscore and smam?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. dscore and smam are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is dscore better than smam?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. dscore and smam are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to dscore?
Top dscore alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dscore alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dscore 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.