OpenLand
Land-change analysis in R that has spent six years defending one download link.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
b3doc vs eratosthenes
A side-by-side editorial comparison of b3doc and eratosthenes — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
b3doc vs eratosthenes: at a glance
What is b3doc?
A small B-Cubed utility for turning R Markdown into publishable docs
b3doc converts R Markdown to Markdown and rewrites front matter for documentation published by the B-Cubed project, which is its entire remit. Three releases exist: the initial pair of functions, a generalisation of the front-matter replacement, and a hardening pass that removed regex from the replace argument and standardised figures at 300 DPI. It sits in the b-cubed-eu family alongside impIndicator and shares contributors with the wider Belgian biodiversity tooling group.
What is eratosthenes?
eratosthenes spends 0.1.0 hardening inputs rather than adding chronology methods.
eratosthenes does Bayesian estimation of archaeological chronologies from relative sequences, absolute constraints and artifact assemblages. The 0.0.9 line built out the inference diagnostics — traceplots, histograms, batch-means MCSE reporting, displacement estimation — and then consolidated artifact probability-density estimation into a single gibbs_ad_type(). The 0.1.0 tag turns outward instead, adding validators for every user-supplied structure and replacing seq_check() with a more informative seq_diag().
b3doc vs eratosthenes: editorial side-by-side
b3doc
0.0INFRA · APIS
A small B-Cubed utility for turning R Markdown into publishable docs
◆ Current state
b3doc converts R Markdown to Markdown and rewrites front matter for documentation published by the B-Cubed project, which is its entire remit. Three releases exist: the initial pair of functions, a generalisation of the front-matter replacement, and a hardening pass that removed regex from the replace argument and standardised figures at 300 DPI. It sits in the b-cubed-eu family alongside impIndicator and shares contributors with the wider Belgian biodiversity tooling group.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is toward predictability over flexibility. The replace argument arrived in 0.2.0 generalising the earlier logo-specific behaviour, then 0.3.0 pulled regex support back out of it because escape characters and over-broad matches caused unintended edits. That is a maintainer choosing a narrower tool that fails obviously over a general one that fails quietly — a reasonable trade for a package that rewrites files in place.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small releases driven by the documentation pipeline's needs, with output-quality defaults and front-matter handling the likely subjects rather than new functions.
eratosthenes
2.5INFRA · APIS
eratosthenes spends 0.1.0 hardening inputs rather than adding chronology methods.
◆ Current state
eratosthenes does Bayesian estimation of archaeological chronologies from relative sequences, absolute constraints and artifact assemblages. The 0.0.9 line built out the inference diagnostics — traceplots, histograms, batch-means MCSE reporting, displacement estimation — and then consolidated artifact probability-density estimation into a single gibbs_ad_type(). The 0.1.0 tag turns outward instead, adding validators for every user-supplied structure and replacing seq_check() with a more informative seq_diag().
◆ Where it's heading
The package is moving from research code to something a non-author can run. Consolidating estimation behind one function, then wrapping every input class in a validator, are the two steps that make failures legible instead of cryptic, and the diagnostics added earlier serve the same end for the sampler itself. Nothing in the window changes the underlying model; the work is all about making it usable and its output checkable.
◆ Prediction
With inputs validated and diagnostics in place, the next release is more likely to extend the constraint or assemblage modelling than to keep reworking the interface, though the feed's three sparse tags give little to read a cadence from.
Alternatives to b3doc and eratosthenes
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 b3doc or eratosthenes.
FoRecoML
The machine-learning arm of a forecast reconciliation toolkit, four months old and already sharing its sibling's plumbing.
FoReco
Forecast reconciliation with a real object model, five years after it started returning bare matrices.
wooldridge
A textbook data package whose whole job is to stay installable, and whose releases prove how much work that is.
L1centrality
A graph-centrality package that spent 2026 making its existing measures usable at scale, then went quiet.
exametrika
A test-theory package that grew into a graphical-model toolkit, now spending its releases paying down the API debt that growth created.
See all b3doc alternatives → · See all eratosthenes alternatives →
Recent activity from b3doc and eratosthenes
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10d agoeratosthenesInput validators added; seq_check() replaced by seq_diag()
- 4mo agob3docRegex dropped from replace; figures standardised at 300 DPI
- 0y agob3docFront-matter replacement generalised beyond the logo
- 1y agoeratosthenesArtifact p.d.f. estimation consolidated into gibbs_ad_type()
- 1y agoeratosthenesMCMC diagnostics arrive: traceplots, histograms, batch-means MCSE
- 1y agob3docInitial release: front-matter updates and Rmd-to-Markdown conversion
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between b3doc and eratosthenes?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. eratosthenes is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 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 b3doc better than eratosthenes?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. eratosthenes is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 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 b3doc?
Top b3doc alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "b3doc alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/b3doc for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to eratosthenes?
Top eratosthenes alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "eratosthenes alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/eratosthenes for the full list with editorial commentary on each.