ggpointless
ggpointless keeps adding the ggplot2 layers nobody else bothered to write.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
fastpos vs sdcMicro
A side-by-side editorial comparison of fastpos and sdcMicro — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
fastpos vs sdcMicro: at a glance
What is fastpos?
Dormant three years, then a two-line release nobody using it would notice
fastpos finds the critical point of stability for a Pearson correlation, a simulation problem whose C++ implementation is the entire reason the package exists. Its substantive work concluded in 2022 with 0.5.0, the release prepared during R Journal review, which renamed the precision parameters, moved multicore work to pbapply and let users set corridor limits directly. After three years of silence, 0.6.0 removes an internal restriction to cpp11 and changes index_pop to an integer.
What is sdcMicro?
A 20-year anonymization toolbox now has a language model inside its refinement loop.
sdcMicro is the reference R implementation of statistical disclosure control — k-anonymity, local suppression, PRAM, microaggregation, record swapping — used by national statistical offices, with a Shiny GUI (sdcApp) as its second face. The feed shows a long GUI-maintenance era through 2018-2022 and then a gap, and the package that reappears in 5.8.2 has an AI_applyAnonymization() workflow and a query_llm() helper that the older entries know nothing about. The July release tunes that loop rather than introducing it.
fastpos vs sdcMicro: editorial side-by-side
fastpos
0.0INFRA · APIS
Dormant three years, then a two-line release nobody using it would notice
◆ Current state
fastpos finds the critical point of stability for a Pearson correlation, a simulation problem whose C++ implementation is the entire reason the package exists. Its substantive work concluded in 2022 with 0.5.0, the release prepared during R Journal review, which renamed the precision parameters, moved multicore work to pbapply and let users set corridor limits directly. After three years of silence, 0.6.0 removes an internal restriction to cpp11 and changes index_pop to an integer.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a finished piece of research software in low-effort upkeep. The changelog's centre of gravity is the R Journal review process, and once that concluded the package stopped changing. The single release since is toolchain work of the kind that keeps a package compiling rather than anything a user would see.
◆ Prediction
Expect nothing beyond occasional compilation or CRAN-check fixes unless the accompanying paper draws requests for other correlation types or resampling schemes.
sdcMicro
0.0INFRA · APIS
A 20-year anonymization toolbox now has a language model inside its refinement loop.
◆ Current state
sdcMicro is the reference R implementation of statistical disclosure control — k-anonymity, local suppression, PRAM, microaggregation, record swapping — used by national statistical offices, with a Shiny GUI (sdcApp) as its second face. The feed shows a long GUI-maintenance era through 2018-2022 and then a gap, and the package that reappears in 5.8.2 has an AI_applyAnonymization() workflow and a query_llm() helper that the older entries know nothing about. The July release tunes that loop rather than introducing it.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run in parallel. The visible one is the LLM-assisted anonymization path maturing: 5.8.2 gives its refinement loop early stopping via tol and patience so it stops when the combined utility score plateaus instead of burning all max_iter rounds, and teaches query_llm() to drop the temperature parameter for reasoning models that reject it. The other is unglamorous statistical correctness — a distinct l-diversity computation fixed for NAs in key variables, with the C++ simplified and tests added. The release also ships reproducibility scripts for a SoftwareX paper, which suggests the AI path is being written up rather than quietly trialled.
◆ Prediction
The provider-compatibility fix is reactive — a parameter dropped because one model family rejected it — so expect more of the same as query_llm() meets other backends. Given tol and patience were added to stop wasted iterations, cost or runtime of the refinement loop is the live concern, and further controls on it are the likeliest next move.
Alternatives to fastpos and sdcMicro
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 fastpos or sdcMicro.
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 fastpos alternatives → · See all sdcMicro alternatives →
Recent activity from fastpos and sdcMicro
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agosdcMicroEarly stopping for the AI anonymization loop, plus GPT-5.x support
- 10mo agofastposcpp11 restriction removed; index_pop now an integer
- 4y agofastposMulticore fix for pbmcapply; Windows limited to one core
- 4y agofastposR Journal review release: renamed precision parameters, manual corridor limits
- 4y agosdcMicrorecordSwap() adds targeted record swapping
- 5y agosdcMicroTwo new information-loss measures and a run of sdcApp fixes
- 5y agosdcMicroCompatibility fixes for R 4.1 sorting and rsconnect deployment
- 5y agofastposMore informative test failures; interactive-only progress bars
- 6y agofastposMulticore support via the future package
- 6y agofastposExact-rho population generation and C++ progress bar fixes
- 8y agosdcMicroMinor release, mostly GUI work
- 8y agosdcMicrodUtility() corrected so IL1 and IL1s can be distinguished
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between fastpos and sdcMicro?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. fastpos and sdcMicro 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 fastpos better than sdcMicro?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. fastpos and sdcMicro 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 fastpos?
Top fastpos alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fastpos alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fastpos for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to sdcMicro?
Top sdcMicro alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "sdcMicro alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/sdcmicro for the full list with editorial commentary on each.