OHPL
A 2017 chemometrics method frozen in place, visited only when CRAN changes its documentation rules.
Comparison · Analytics
bpbounds vs fasster
A side-by-side editorial comparison of bpbounds and fasster — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
bpbounds vs fasster: at a glance
What is bpbounds?
bpbounds found the same swapped-cell bug twice and clamped its bounds back into range
bpbounds computes nonparametric Balke-Pearl bounds on the average causal effect from instrumental variable data, in the bivariate and trivariate cases. After years of pure packaging maintenance, the two 2026 releases are analytical corrections. Bounds on intervention probabilities are now clamped to [0, 1] so derived causal risk ratio bounds cannot fall outside their feasible range, and a cell-ordering error in the trivariate three-category instrument path has been repaired.
What is fasster?
fasster arrives as a fable-compatible state space model for switching seasonality.
fasster implements FASSTER, a state space model with a switching component in the measurement equation, aimed at series carrying several seasonal patterns and abrupt structural change. Version 0.2.0 is the first substantive release: a formula interface with trend(), season(), fourier(), ARMA() and xreg() plus the %S% switching and %?% conditional operators, and the full fable method set. Parameters come from a filtering-and-smoothing heuristic rather than full optimisation.
bpbounds vs fasster: editorial side-by-side
bpbounds
0.0ANALYTICS
bpbounds found the same swapped-cell bug twice and clamped its bounds back into range
◆ Current state
bpbounds computes nonparametric Balke-Pearl bounds on the average causal effect from instrumental variable data, in the bivariate and trivariate cases. After years of pure packaging maintenance, the two 2026 releases are analytical corrections. Bounds on intervention probabilities are now clamped to [0, 1] so derived causal risk ratio bounds cannot fall outside their feasible range, and a cell-ordering error in the trivariate three-category instrument path has been repaired.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is toward agreement with the reference Stata implementation and away from silently wrong output. The clamping change is described as matching the same fix in the Stata package, which suggests the two implementations are being reconciled rather than developed independently. The cell-ordering defect is the more instructive one: it was fixed in the calculation function in 0.1.7 and then again in the constraint matrix in 0.1.8, meaning the same x=0,y=1 / x=1,y=0 swap had been written in two places.
◆ Prediction
Since the recent fixes came from an external contributor's report and both touched the trivariate three-category path, the untested corners of that path are where further corrections would surface — but the release notes give no roadmap beyond parity with the Stata package.
fasster
0.0ANALYTICS
fasster arrives as a fable-compatible state space model for switching seasonality.
◆ Current state
fasster implements FASSTER, a state space model with a switching component in the measurement equation, aimed at series carrying several seasonal patterns and abrupt structural change. Version 0.2.0 is the first substantive release: a formula interface with trend(), season(), fourier(), ARMA() and xreg() plus the %S% switching and %?% conditional operators, and the full fable method set. Parameters come from a filtering-and-smoothing heuristic rather than full optimisation.
◆ Where it's heading
The package sat at a 2018 development version for over seven years, so the news is that it exists as a usable model at all. Implementing the whole fable contract — forecast(), refit(), stream(), interpolate(), components() — means it slots into an existing forecasting workflow instead of asking for its own. The heuristic estimator is the open question these entries leave unanswered.
◆ Prediction
The obvious next step is supplementing the heuristic parameter estimates with proper optimisation, though the two entries here give no direct signal on timing.
Alternatives to bpbounds and fasster
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 bpbounds or fasster.
fastplyr
A fast dplyr stand-in that keeps finding new places to skip work entirely.
trias
Belgium's invasive-species indicator toolkit is in steady refinement, one plotting edge case at a time.
icesSAG
The ICES stock assessment client took upload away in 2024 and spent two years giving it back.
dggridR
A discrete global grid generator grew cell traversal and became a usable spatial index.
vegan
Community ecology's standard toolkit is retiring the functions a generation of scripts was built on.
See all bpbounds alternatives → · See all fasster alternatives →
Recent activity from bpbounds and fasster
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agobpboundsbpbounds clamps probability bounds and fixes a constraint-matrix swap
- 2mo agobpboundsbpbounds fixes swapped cells in the trivariate calculation
- 6mo agofassterFASSTER lands as a complete fable model ⚡
- 2y agobpboundsbpbounds 0.1.6
- 3y agobpboundsbpbounds 0.1.5
- 6y agobpboundsVersion 0.1.4 on CRAN
- 7y agobpboundsVersion 0.1.3
- 7y agofassterEarly development build
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bpbounds and fasster?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. bpbounds and fasster 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 bpbounds better than fasster?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. bpbounds and fasster 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 Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to bpbounds?
Top bpbounds alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "bpbounds alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bpbounds for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to fasster?
Top fasster alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fasster alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fasster for the full list with editorial commentary on each.