vcfR
A genomics workhorse whose visible release feed stops dead in mid-2020.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
surveytidy vs trackeR
A side-by-side editorial comparison of surveytidy and trackeR — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
surveytidy vs trackeR: at a glance
What is surveytidy?
surveytidy taught every dplyr verb to operate on a whole collection of surveys at once.
surveytidy is the tidyverse-facing half of a two-package survey stack, wrapping survey design objects from surveycore so filter, mutate, select and the rest work on them while carrying variable labels, value labels and a transformation log alongside the data. The May release extended that verb surface to survey_collection, the abstraction surveycore uses to hold several surveys as one object, so a pipeline written once dispatches across every member.
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.
surveytidy vs trackeR: editorial side-by-side
surveytidy
0.0INFRA · APIS
surveytidy taught every dplyr verb to operate on a whole collection of surveys at once.
◆ Current state
surveytidy is the tidyverse-facing half of a two-package survey stack, wrapping survey design objects from surveycore so filter, mutate, select and the rest work on them while carrying variable labels, value labels and a transformation log alongside the data. The May release extended that verb surface to survey_collection, the abstraction surveycore uses to hold several surveys as one object, so a pipeline written once dispatches across every member.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is being built in two layers that arrive in order: vector-level transformations first, structural dispatch second. The make_* family in 0.4.0 handles the recoding that survey work actually consists of — labelled to factor, multi-level to dichotomous, scale reversal, valence flipping — with value labels propagating automatically. Collection support then applies data-masking, tidyselect, grouping, slicing and collapsing verbs per survey, with joins explicitly refused and a typed message reporting which surveys were skipped. Metadata fidelity is the recurring bug source: labels surviving across(), stale labels left behind by recoding, the transformation log keeping up with what the verbs did.
◆ Prediction
Joins are the one verb family that errors on collections, with users directed to join before constructing the collection, so that restriction is the clearest outstanding gap. The re-export of surveycore's collection constructors suggests the package is positioning itself as the single import users need, which points toward more re-exports as surveycore's stable API settles.
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 surveytidy 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 surveytidy or trackeR.
dialr
The R phone-number package stopped only parsing numbers and started asking them where they are.
ggVennDiagram
A Venn diagram package whose public release notes say almost nothing — including about its copyright cleanup.
ordinalsimr
A Shiny app for choosing the right ordinal test reached CRAN in a single 90-minute burst of tags.
transltr
A new R localization package that reached CRAN and immediately downgraded itself to experimental.
hereR
An R client for HERE's location APIs, shaped almost entirely by what the vendor exposes next.
See all surveytidy alternatives → · See all trackeR alternatives →
Recent activity from surveytidy and trackeR
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agosurveytidymutate() syncs metadata for across() recodes
- 3mo agosurveytidydplyr and tidyr verbs dispatch across survey collections
- 5mo agosurveytidyFive label-aware recoding functions for use inside mutate()
- 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 surveytidy and trackeR?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. surveytidy 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 surveytidy better than trackeR?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. surveytidy 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 surveytidy?
Top surveytidy alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "surveytidy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/surveytidy 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.