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Comparison · Infra & APIs
modsem vs selection.index
A side-by-side editorial comparison of modsem and selection.index — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
modsem vs selection.index: at a glance
What is modsem?
modsem is grinding latent interaction models toward Mplus parity, one estimator at a time.
modsem fits interaction and quadratic effects between latent variables in R, offering both product-indicator approaches (modsem_pi) and distribution-analytic ones (modsem_da, covering LMS and QML). Releases land roughly monthly and are dense pull-request lists. The recent line is dominated by the LMS approach: gradient refactors, parallel E-steps, composite construct support, and careful handling of residual covariances between latent variables.
What is selection.index?
A dormant plant-breeding package returns as a genomic selection index suite
selection.index computes selection indices for plant breeding — weighting several traits into one number breeders can rank on. After two years of silence it shipped 2.0.0 in March 2026, and the package is barely recognisable: snake_case throughout, an Rcpp and RcppEigen computational core, and index families for genomic data, marker data, multi-stage trials and constrained genetic gain sitting beside the original phenotypic ones.
modsem vs selection.index: editorial side-by-side
modsem
0.0INFRA · APIS
modsem is grinding latent interaction models toward Mplus parity, one estimator at a time.
◆ Current state
modsem fits interaction and quadratic effects between latent variables in R, offering both product-indicator approaches (modsem_pi) and distribution-analytic ones (modsem_da, covering LMS and QML). Releases land roughly monthly and are dense pull-request lists. The recent line is dominated by the LMS approach: gradient refactors, parallel E-steps, composite construct support, and careful handling of residual covariances between latent variables.
◆ Where it's heading
Two things are being closed at once. The modelling gap — composites and formative constructs, categorical estimators, residual covariances in every direction, multigroup and clustered designs — brings modsem toward what commercial Mplus users expect, and the package's Mplus bridge is maintained alongside it, now with unique file IDs and a cleanup argument. The performance gap is the other: memoised H0, parallel E-step, optimized gradients and Hessians for both LMS and QML, all aimed at the distribution-analytic estimators that are expensive by construction. Convention borrowing from lavaan continues in message formatting and standard-error defaults.
◆ Prediction
The 1.0.20 and 1.0.21 releases both spent effort on residual covariances between endogenous and exogenous latent variables across estimation, prediction and standardization, and that thread has not obviously closed. The arrival of a second contributor moving MplusAutomation to Suggests suggests dependency trimming continues.
selection.index
0.0INFRA · APIS
A dormant plant-breeding package returns as a genomic selection index suite
◆ Current state
selection.index computes selection indices for plant breeding — weighting several traits into one number breeders can rank on. After two years of silence it shipped 2.0.0 in March 2026, and the package is barely recognisable: snake_case throughout, an Rcpp and RcppEigen computational core, and index families for genomic data, marker data, multi-stage trials and constrained genetic gain sitting beside the original phenotypic ones.
◆ Where it's heading
The first version series added one function at a time — combinatorial indices, then genetic advance, then mean performance under randomised block designs — against a fixed phenotypic framing. Version 2.0.0 abandons that framing rather than extending it. Genomic and marker information become inputs the package understands, multi-cycle simulation becomes a built-in toolset, and the old combinatorial entry points are replaced by a named lpsi(). The 2.0.1 follow-up is entirely CI and numerical-stability work, which reads like a maintainer bracing a much larger surface.
◆ Prediction
A seventeen-runner CI matrix mirroring every CRAN check flavour, added days after 2.0.0, says the immediate concern is keeping a compiled multi-family package green rather than adding to it. Expect stabilisation releases before anything new.
Alternatives to modsem and selection.index
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 modsem or selection.index.
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.
See all modsem alternatives → · See all selection.index alternatives →
Recent activity from modsem and selection.index
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agomodsemUnique Mplus file IDs, cleanup argument, LMS gradient refactor
- 2mo agomodsemComposite constructs for LMS, plus MC-LMS-CAT and MC-QML-CAT
- 3mo agomodsemPrint spacing and a partial-match fix in getSortedEtas()
- 4mo agomodsemCategorical argument for Mplus; partial support for the <~ operator
- 5mo agoselection.indexCI expanded to 17 runners after the 2.0.0 rewrite
- 5mo agomodsemConsistent three-way interaction estimates with rcs=TRUE
- 5mo agoselection.indexGenomic, marker and multi-stage selection indices on an Rcpp core ⚡
- 6mo agoselection.indexUnspecified general performance improvements
- 6mo agomodsemSecondary pruning and a forward-difference Hessian mode
- 2y agoselection.indexMean performance for randomised block designs
- 3y agoselection.indexsel.index() and sel.score.rank() removed for comb.indices()
- 4y agoselection.indexGenetic advance calculation added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between modsem and selection.index?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. modsem and selection.index 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 modsem better than selection.index?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. modsem and selection.index 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 modsem?
Top modsem alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "modsem alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/modsem for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to selection.index?
Top selection.index alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "selection.index alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/selection-index for the full list with editorial commentary on each.