afcharts
UK government chart styling in ggplot2, chasing ggplot2 v4 and stretching its palette to five.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
aftables vs campsis
A side-by-side editorial comparison of aftables and campsis — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
aftables vs campsis: at a glance
What is aftables?
Accessible government spreadsheets in R, rebuilt on openxlsx2 and renamed along the way.
aftables generates spreadsheets that meet the UK Analysis Function's accessibility guidance, taking structured input and producing a formatted workbook with cover, contents, notes and table sheets. Version 2.0.0 replaced the workbook engine with openxlsx2 and added configuration through a config.yaml file, with create_config_yaml() exporting a template and generate_workbook() gaining arguments to point at it. The package was previously called a11ytables and was renamed in 1.0.2, with function names changed to match.
What is campsis?
Campsis breaks its API on purpose: snake_case throughout, RxODE compatibility cut loose.
Campsis runs clinical-trial simulations from pharmacometric models, sitting on mrgsolve and rxode2 as interchangeable engines, with the sibling package Campsismod supplying the model object layer. Version 1.9.0 is the release where the suite stops carrying its history: the whole API migrates to snake_case, backward compatibility with the old RxODE package is removed, and result processing is refactored into output functions that can be applied as a collection, with an NCA table the first substantial one. Campsismod made the same snake_case move a week earlier, so this is a suite-wide rename rather than one package's decision.
aftables vs campsis: editorial side-by-side
aftables
0.0INFRA · APIS
Accessible government spreadsheets in R, rebuilt on openxlsx2 and renamed along the way.
◆ Current state
aftables generates spreadsheets that meet the UK Analysis Function's accessibility guidance, taking structured input and producing a formatted workbook with cover, contents, notes and table sheets. Version 2.0.0 replaced the workbook engine with openxlsx2 and added configuration through a config.yaml file, with create_config_yaml() exporting a template and generate_workbook() gaining arguments to point at it. The package was previously called a11ytables and was renamed in 1.0.2, with function names changed to match.
◆ Where it's heading
The history reads in two phases. As a11ytables the work was about what belongs in an accessible spreadsheet, adding arbitrary pre-table metadata rows and enforcing rules such as rejecting tab titles that start with a numeral. Since the rename the work has been structural: a new backend, and configuration moved out of function arguments into a file that can be version-controlled and shared across a team. That second phase suits the audience, since government analysts producing recurring statistical releases want the same document properties applied every time rather than re-specified per run.
◆ Prediction
Expect the config.yaml surface to grow to cover more of what is currently passed as arguments, given it arrived alongside alternative author, title and keywords arguments that it plainly supersedes. With the openxlsx2 migration complete, further releases are likely to be formatting fixes surfaced by real departmental publications, as 2.0.1 already was.
campsis
3.8INFRA · APIS
Campsis breaks its API on purpose: snake_case throughout, RxODE compatibility cut loose.
◆ Current state
Campsis runs clinical-trial simulations from pharmacometric models, sitting on mrgsolve and rxode2 as interchangeable engines, with the sibling package Campsismod supplying the model object layer. Version 1.9.0 is the release where the suite stops carrying its history: the whole API migrates to snake_case, backward compatibility with the old RxODE package is removed, and result processing is refactored into output functions that can be applied as a collection, with an NCA table the first substantial one. Campsismod made the same snake_case move a week earlier, so this is a suite-wide rename rather than one package's decision.
◆ Where it's heading
The 1.8 and 1.9 releases together describe a package being made drivable from outside R. JSON interfaces arrived first for models in Campsismod 1.3.0 and for datasets in Campsis 1.8.0, then extended to scenarios, settings and study replication; the output side has now been generalised the same way, from fixed result processing to a collection of output functions applied to simulated results. Renaming every function and cutting RxODE loose is the cost of that consolidation, paid in one deliberate breaking release rather than spread across several.
◆ Prediction
With the rename and the RxODE removal behind it, the next releases should restore the rxode2 engine to the test suite, which 1.9.0 removed temporarily, and continue filling out the output-function catalogue beyond NCA. The JSON surface looks like the intended entry point for driving Campsis from outside R, though the entries do not say what is meant to consume it.
Alternatives to aftables and campsis
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 aftables or campsis.
coga
A gamma-convolution density package that reached completion in 2018 and has coasted since.
smam
Animal-movement models in R, where new stochastic processes arrive years apart.
baseq
A basic DNA and RNA sequence toolkit that went quiet for three years, then jumped to 2.0.
pakret
Package citation for R documents, quietly growing to meet Quarto.
ShortForm
Automated scale shortening with lavaan, spending its releases repairing its own search algorithms.
See all aftables alternatives → · See all campsis alternatives →
Recent activity from aftables and campsis
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15d agocampsissnake_case across the API; RxODE compatibility removed ⚡
- 4mo agoaftablesrlang import restored for older R versions
- 5mo agoaftablesWorkbook engine moved to openxlsx2; config.yaml introduced ⚡
- 5mo agocampsisJSON arguments reach Dataset, Scenarios and Settings
- 7mo agocampsisMaintenance release for future package warnings
- 7mo agocampsisJSON import for Campsis datasets
- 1y agocampsisDosing gains vectorized compartments and cycle repetition
- 1y agoaftablesPackage renamed from a11ytables to aftables
- 1y agocampsisParameter uncertainty from SIR and bootstrap output
- 2y agoaftablesTab titles beginning with a numeral now rejected
- 2y agoaftablescustom_rows allows arbitrary pre-table metadata
- 2y agoaftablesTable count spelled out; README spelling corrected
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between aftables and campsis?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. campsis is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is aftables better than campsis?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. campsis is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to aftables?
Top aftables alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "aftables alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/aftables for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to campsis?
Top campsis alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "campsis alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/campsis for the full list with editorial commentary on each.