pivottabler
The pivot table package that ships only when R itself changes underneath it.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
surveycore vs trackeR
A side-by-side editorial comparison of surveycore and trackeR — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
surveycore vs trackeR: at a glance
What is surveycore?
surveycore declared its API stable with every survey design type covered.
surveycore is the estimation engine of a two-package survey stack, handling design objects and variance estimation while surveytidy supplies the dplyr verbs on top. The June release marks it 1.0.0 and states the API is complete and stable across Taylor series linearization, replicate weights, two-phase and non-probability designs, with means, totals, frequencies, quantiles, ratios, correlations, regression, t-tests, ANOVA and effective sample size all in place.
What is trackeR?
Fitness-tracking analysis in slow maintenance, still absorbing upstream breakage.
trackeR reads GPS and fitness-tracker files in TCX, GPX and JSON form and turns them into session data, distribution and concentration profiles, and route plots. Feature work concentrated in the 1.5 series in 2019; the two releases since are corrective. The latest swaps the plot layout dependencies for patchwork and fixes plot_route() returning nothing.
surveycore vs trackeR: editorial side-by-side
surveycore
0.0INFRA · APIS
surveycore declared its API stable with every survey design type covered.
◆ Current state
surveycore is the estimation engine of a two-package survey stack, handling design objects and variance estimation while surveytidy supplies the dplyr verbs on top. The June release marks it 1.0.0 and states the API is complete and stable across Taylor series linearization, replicate weights, two-phase and non-probability designs, with means, totals, frequencies, quantiles, ratios, correlations, regression, t-tests, ANOVA and effective sample size all in place.
◆ Where it's heading
The last months before 1.0.0 were spent making the awkward designs behave like the ordinary ones. Non-probability designs gained jackknife replicate schemes and got their bootstrap repweights routed through the replicate-weight variance estimator in survey_glm(), matching every other estimation function. The survey_collection abstraction — several surveys treated as one pseudo-data-frame — was tightened rather than extended: divergent grouping across members now errors instead of stitching a patchwork with bind_rows(), and the missing-variable argument was renamed and given a stored default on the collection itself. A documentation audit before 1.0.0 turned up six dispatch and print bugs and corrections across forty-plus files, which is the kind of thing that surfaces when an API is being frozen rather than extended.
◆ Prediction
A declared-stable API means the next releases should be additive or corrective rather than breaking, and the pre-1.0.0 pattern of breaking renames should stop. The tight version pinning between the two packages means surveytidy releases will keep following surveycore's.
trackeR
0.0INFRA · APIS
Fitness-tracking analysis in slow maintenance, still absorbing upstream breakage.
◆ Current state
trackeR reads GPS and fitness-tracker files in TCX, GPX and JSON form and turns them into session data, distribution and concentration profiles, and route plots. Feature work concentrated in the 1.5 series in 2019; the two releases since are corrective. The latest swaps the plot layout dependencies for patchwork and fixes plot_route() returning nothing.
◆ Where it's heading
Recent releases track other people's changes: ggmap moving to Stadia maps, gridExtra giving way to patchwork, a cadence field being read into the wrong column. The 2019 entries are where the analysis surface was built out, with cumulative elevation gain, compressed file reading and elevation-noise thresholds, and it has not moved much since.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be another compatibility or parsing fix rather than a new metric.
Alternatives to surveycore and trackeR
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 surveycore or trackeR.
basictabler
Four years dormant, then a CRAN-notes patch — the table renderer that already did what it set out to do.
eatGADS
Labelled survey data, one edge case at a time — and the edge cases are all about missing values.
CHNOSZ
A geochemistry thermodynamics engine that changed its units and its database schema in one release.
crandep
Half CRAN dependency scraper, half extreme-value modelling kit — and the scraper half keeps finding bugs.
OpenRepGrid
Repertory grids learn which pole is the preferred one — a data-model change, not another plot option.
See all surveycore alternatives → · See all trackeR alternatives →
Recent activity from surveycore and trackeR
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agosurveycoreFirst stable release: all four survey design types complete ⚡
- 3mo agosurveycoreget_effective_n() computes effective sample size
- 3mo agosurveycoreCollections error on divergent grouping; .on_missing renamed
- 4mo agosurveycoreCRAN patch removing surveytidy from the vignette
- 11mo agotrackeRplot_route() fixed; plot layout moved to patchwork
- 2y agotrackeRTCX cadence bug fixed; m_per_min units and Stadia maps
- 7y agotrackeRCompressed file reading and correct GPX power extraction
- 7y agotrackeRvertical_noise threshold for elevation gain
- 7y agotrackeRCumulative elevation gain added as a derived metric
- 7y agotrackeRFortify and print bugs fixed in summary objects
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between surveycore and trackeR?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. surveycore and trackeR 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 surveycore better than trackeR?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. surveycore and trackeR 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 surveycore?
Top surveycore alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "surveycore alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/surveycore for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to trackeR?
Top trackeR alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "trackeR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tracker for the full list with editorial commentary on each.