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Comparison · Analytics
biocro vs distributions3
A side-by-side editorial comparison of biocro and distributions3 — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
biocro vs distributions3: at a glance
What is biocro?
BioCro swapped an unstable iteration for real root finders, changing what its crop models compute.
BioCro is a C++ crop growth simulator with an R interface, built from swappable modules for photosynthesis, respiration and development. Version 3.3.0 added multidimensional and one-dimensional root finders to the C++ source and put them to work immediately, replacing the fixed-point iteration used for intercellular CO2 with a Dekker root finder on the grounds that fixed-point iteration is known to be unstable there. Getting to that release also required moving from C++11 to C++17 and updating the bundled boost from 1.71 to 1.89.
What is distributions3?
distributions3 changes hands to Achim Zeileis, and a moment calculation bug goes with it.
An R package giving probability distributions a consistent object interface — d/p/q/r functions, moments, and prodist() methods that extract a fitted distribution from a regression object. Releases are infrequent, roughly one a year, and the last one is largely administrative: Achim Zeileis takes over maintenance from Alex Hayes, with all URLs and documentation updated to match, alongside a fix to incorrect moment calculations reported by a user.
biocro vs distributions3: editorial side-by-side
biocro
0.0ANALYTICS
BioCro swapped an unstable iteration for real root finders, changing what its crop models compute.
◆ Current state
BioCro is a C++ crop growth simulator with an R interface, built from swappable modules for photosynthesis, respiration and development. Version 3.3.0 added multidimensional and one-dimensional root finders to the C++ source and put them to work immediately, replacing the fixed-point iteration used for intercellular CO2 with a Dekker root finder on the grounds that fixed-point iteration is known to be unstable there. Getting to that release also required moving from C++11 to C++17 and updating the bundled boost from 1.71 to 1.89.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run together: the biology is being broken into finer interchangeable modules — separate maintenance respiration, alternative linear and logistic SLA methods, a direct development-index module — while the numerics underneath are being made solvable in general. The root finders are explicitly staged to move into the shared biocro/framework repository, so this is groundwork for other models rather than for this package alone.
◆ Prediction
More module-level alternatives that depend on simultaneous-equation solutions are the natural follow-on, and the root finders should migrate out to biocro/framework as the notes state.
distributions3
2.5ANALYTICS
distributions3 changes hands to Achim Zeileis, and a moment calculation bug goes with it.
◆ Current state
An R package giving probability distributions a consistent object interface — d/p/q/r functions, moments, and prodist() methods that extract a fitted distribution from a regression object. Releases are infrequent, roughly one a year, and the last one is largely administrative: Achim Zeileis takes over maintenance from Alex Hayes, with all URLs and documentation updated to match, alongside a fix to incorrect moment calculations reported by a user.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's growth has come in two modes. Early releases absorbed whole families of distributions from outside contributors — the extreme-value set, Erlang, later the Poisson binomial — while later ones tightened the interface itself with is_discrete() and is_continuous() generics and elementwise type-safety when applying a distribution vector to a numeric vector. The handover is the notable event in the current window: maintenance moves to the author of the surrounding statistical ecosystem this package already integrates with through prodist() and countreg, which suggests the interface work will continue over the distribution-collection work.
◆ Prediction
Expect closer alignment with Zeileis's own packages, with prodist() coverage widening to more model classes; the entries here do not indicate whether new distribution families remain on the agenda.
Alternatives to biocro and distributions3
Other Analytics 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 biocro or distributions3.
epikit
epikit narrows to field-epidemiology helpers, handing proportions to a sibling package
SimInf
SimInf 10.0 turns an epidemic simulator into a tool that fits models to real time series
mutagen
A young package porting Stata's egen row-wise helpers to the tidyverse, one function per release
broman
A statistician's personal toolbox, growing one plotting utility at a time
qtl
R/qtl is in pure custodial mode: every recent release answers a compiler, not a user
See all biocro alternatives → · See all distributions3 alternatives →
Recent activity from biocro and distributions3
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 24d agodistributions3Maintenance moves to Achim Zeileis; moment calculations corrected
- 6mo agobiocroCompiler warning blocking Linux builds fixed
- 8mo agobiocroC++ root finders added; Ci calculation moved off fixed-point iteration ⚡
- 10mo agodistributions3ggplot2 compatibility for the plotting functions
- 1y agobiocroMaintenance respiration module; SLA split into swappable methods
- 1y agodistributions3Poisson binomial distribution, with a normal-approximation fallback
- 2y agobiocroFirst CRAN-accepted release after a 20 MB to 5 MB cut
- 2y agobiocroDESCRIPTION date refreshed for CRAN submission
- 2y agobiocroCI workflow debugging tag, not a release
- 3y agodistributions3is_discrete and is_continuous generics, plus elementwise type-safety
- 4y agodistributions3Extreme-value family, Erlang, and a plotting generic
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between biocro and distributions3?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. distributions3 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 biocro better than distributions3?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. distributions3 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 Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to biocro?
Top biocro alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "biocro alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/biocro-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to distributions3?
Top distributions3 alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "distributions3 alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/distributions3-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.