tabular
tabular went from clinical tables to complete TFL output in under two months.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
artoo vs campsis
A side-by-side editorial comparison of artoo and campsis — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
artoo vs campsis: at a glance
What is artoo?
artoo makes any-to-any clinical dataset conversion lossless by construction.
artoo reads and writes SAS XPORT, CDISC Dataset-JSON, NDJSON, Parquet and RDS around one canonical metadata model, so a conversion between any two formats carries labels, CDISC types, lengths, display formats, controlled-terminology references and sort keys intact. It is pure R with no SAS or Java runtime. It reached CRAN at 0.1.1 and has spent 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 on the character-encoding edges.
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.
artoo vs campsis: editorial side-by-side
artoo
2.5INFRA · APIS
artoo makes any-to-any clinical dataset conversion lossless by construction.
◆ Current state
artoo reads and writes SAS XPORT, CDISC Dataset-JSON, NDJSON, Parquet and RDS around one canonical metadata model, so a conversion between any two formats carries labels, CDISC types, lengths, display formats, controlled-terminology references and sort keys intact. It is pure R with no SAS or Java runtime. It reached CRAN at 0.1.1 and has spent 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 on the character-encoding edges.
◆ Where it's heading
Recent work is all about text that does not survive a format change. 0.1.3 adds an invalid_encoding dimension to artoo_checks() that flags bytes which are not valid UTF-8 before a writer aborts on them, accepts the SAS OEM/DOS encoding names, and gives the writers on_invalid = "translit" and "fold" so smart punctuation and accented characters resolve to pinned ASCII instead of failing. The fold tables ship as data specifically so the result is identical on every platform, which is the same determinism argument behind C-locale row sorting in 0.1.0.
◆ Prediction
The new WLATIN1-to-UTF-8 migration article and the width warning on write_xpt() point the next attention at length and truncation semantics rather than at additional formats. These notes name no further target format.
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 artoo 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 artoo or campsis.
usmapdata
usmapdata ships its 2025 shapefiles on the year-indexed model it adopted in 0.4.0.
glcdp
glcdp reaches 1.0.0 with a stable schema contract behind its data explorer.
prova
prova adds expected-utility calculation on top of its Bayesian inference core.
checkhelper
checkhelper grew from a check wrapper into a CRAN pre-submission auditor.
rstudio.prefs
Four years dormant, rstudio.prefs returns under a new maintainer.
See all artoo alternatives → · See all campsis alternatives →
Recent activity from artoo and campsis
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15d agocampsissnake_case across the API; RxODE compatibility removed ⚡
- 28d agoartooEncoding checks and translit/fold modes for the writers
- 1mo agoartoonoLD check fix; codec unchanged
- 2mo agoartooInitial CRAN release after resubmission
- 2mo agoartooLossless any-to-any CDISC dataset conversion in pure R ⚡
- 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 agocampsisParameter uncertainty from SIR and bootstrap output
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between artoo and campsis?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. campsis is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 2.5), 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 artoo 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 2.5), 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 artoo?
Top artoo alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "artoo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/artoo 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.