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A 2017 chemometrics method frozen in place, visited only when CRAN changes its documentation rules.
Comparison · Analytics
bpbounds vs filtro
A side-by-side editorial comparison of bpbounds and filtro — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
bpbounds vs filtro: 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 filtro?
filtro moves to S7 and multiplies its feature-scoring methods in a single release.
filtro supplies feature-selection filter scores for the tidymodels stack. Version 0.2.0 adds five scoring methods — correlation, random forest importance, information gain, ROC AUC and cross tabulation — and moves the package from S3 to S7. It also gains a ranking layer: show_best_score_* and rank_best_score_* helpers for a single score, plus desirability-function helpers for optimising across several scores at once.
bpbounds vs filtro: 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.
filtro
0.0ANALYTICS
filtro moves to S7 and multiplies its feature-scoring methods in a single release.
◆ Current state
filtro supplies feature-selection filter scores for the tidymodels stack. Version 0.2.0 adds five scoring methods — correlation, random forest importance, information gain, ROC AUC and cross tabulation — and moves the package from S3 to S7. It also gains a ranking layer: show_best_score_* and rank_best_score_* helpers for a single score, plus desirability-function helpers for optimising across several scores at once.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is being built out on two axes at once — the catalogue of scores, and the machinery for choosing between them. The desirability functions are the more telling half, since they assume users will filter on several criteria rather than one. Adopting S7 while still pre-1.0 suggests the object model is being settled before the API is frozen.
◆ Prediction
Expect more scoring methods on the same S7 interface and a 1.0 release once the score and ranking APIs stop moving; the ranking helpers' naming is the most likely thing to change first.
Alternatives to bpbounds and filtro
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 filtro.
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 filtro alternatives →
Recent activity from bpbounds and filtro
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
- 11mo agofiltroFive new filter scores and the move to S7 ⚡
- 11mo agofiltroDevelopment build: score transformation handling
- 2y agobpboundsbpbounds 0.1.6
- 3y agobpboundsbpbounds 0.1.5
- 6y agobpboundsVersion 0.1.4 on CRAN
- 7y agobpboundsVersion 0.1.3
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bpbounds and filtro?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. bpbounds and filtro 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 filtro?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. bpbounds and filtro 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 filtro?
Top filtro alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "filtro alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/filtro-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.