pr2database
The protist reference database keeps widening past the rRNA gene it was built on.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
BAS vs bcdata
A side-by-side editorial comparison of BAS and bcdata — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
BAS vs bcdata: at a glance
What is BAS?
A Bayesian model-averaging package spending its 2.0 on memory, not methods.
BAS performs Bayesian variable selection and model averaging for linear and generalized linear models, sampling from a model space too large to enumerate. The visible history splits cleanly: 2023-2024 added sampling machinery — an adaptive independent MCMC sampler with Horvitz-Thompson estimation, hereditary-constraint counting — while 2.0.0 in late 2025 reworked how sampler output is allocated in C. The 2.0.2 patch is a PROTECT fix for rchk warnings.
What is bcdata?
The R gateway to B.C.'s data catalogue, mostly busy keeping pace with the servers behind it.
bcdata searches the British Columbia Data Catalogue and pulls records from it, including spatial layers retrieved through WMS and WFS with dplyr-style filtering translated into CQL queries sent to the server. The recent releases are small and corrective: 0.5.3 fixes malformed CQL generated by geometry predicates such as INTERSECTS, which the server had been rejecting outright, and 0.5.2 drops a leaflet extension dependency in favour of a base leaflet call. Cadence is a few releases a year.
BAS vs bcdata: editorial side-by-side
BAS
0.0INFRA · APIS
A Bayesian model-averaging package spending its 2.0 on memory, not methods.
◆ Current state
BAS performs Bayesian variable selection and model averaging for linear and generalized linear models, sampling from a model space too large to enumerate. The visible history splits cleanly: 2023-2024 added sampling machinery — an adaptive independent MCMC sampler with Horvitz-Thompson estimation, hereditary-constraint counting — while 2.0.0 in late 2025 reworked how sampler output is allocated in C. The 2.0.2 patch is a PROTECT fix for rchk warnings.
◆ Where it's heading
Memory is the binding constraint and the releases say so directly. The hereditary-constraint counter, the GROW option, and the replacement of over-allocation with resizing all attack the same problem: n.models is a guess, and guessing high wastes memory on problems where few unique models are actually visited. The 2.0.0 work was additionally forced by R tightening its C API against non-API calls like SETLENGTH, a constraint every C-heavy CRAN package has been absorbing. Method development has been quiet since 1.7.x.
◆ Prediction
The 1.7.5 notes call the hereditary-constraint counting a first step and say future updates will cover other constraint types, including polynomials, which remain unhandled. That is the one concrete commitment in this history, though nothing since has returned to it.
bcdata
0.0INFRA · APIS
The R gateway to B.C.'s data catalogue, mostly busy keeping pace with the servers behind it.
◆ Current state
bcdata searches the British Columbia Data Catalogue and pulls records from it, including spatial layers retrieved through WMS and WFS with dplyr-style filtering translated into CQL queries sent to the server. The recent releases are small and corrective: 0.5.3 fixes malformed CQL generated by geometry predicates such as INTERSECTS, which the server had been rejecting outright, and 0.5.2 drops a leaflet extension dependency in favour of a base leaflet call. Cadence is a few releases a year.
◆ Where it's heading
Almost everything in this window is a response to something changing on the other side of the connection: a CKAN 2.9 upgrade that stopped search and listing functions returning complete results, WMS and WFS capability requests that cannot be relied on, dbplyr tightening the rules for local evaluation, and general catalogue-side churn. The package's own interface has been stable since the 0.4.0 change that required local() around locally-evaluated filter calls, and the work since has gone into keeping that stable interface working rather than extending it.
◆ Prediction
Expect the same pattern: targeted fixes as the catalogue and its CKAN, WMS and WFS layers change, with occasional dependency pruning of the kind 0.5.2 did. Nothing in these entries points toward a 0.6 or a change in what the package covers.
Alternatives to BAS and bcdata
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 BAS or bcdata.
ggalign
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
prioritizr
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
jSDM
Joint species distribution models in Gibbs-sampled C++, quiet since 2023.
rsofun
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
usmap
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
Recent activity from BAS and bcdata
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agobcdataGeometry predicate filters no longer rejected by the server
- 6mo agobcdataleaflet.extras dependency dropped for WMS legends
- 8mo agoBASBAS 2.0.2
- 8mo agoBASBAS 2.0.0
- 1y agobcdataSearch and listing functions return complete results again
- 1y agobcdataHardened against failing WMS and WFS capability requests
- 1y agoBASBAS 1.7.5
- 1y agoBASBAS 1.7.3
- 1y agoBASBAS 1.7.2
- 2y agoBASBAS 1.7.1
- 3y agobcdataJSON resources readable; organization listing helpers added
- 3y agobcdatafilter() now requires local() for locally-evaluated calls
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between BAS and bcdata?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. BAS and bcdata 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 BAS better than bcdata?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. BAS and bcdata 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 BAS?
Top BAS alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "BAS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bas for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to bcdata?
Top bcdata alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "bcdata alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bcdata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.