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Comparison · Analytics
broman vs socialmixr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of broman and socialmixr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
broman vs socialmixr: at a glance
What is broman?
A statistician's personal toolbox, growing one plotting utility at a time
broman is Karl Broman's collection of personal R utilities — base-graphics plotting helpers such as grayplot, dotplot and timeplot, running-window summaries, and assorted conveniences. Recent releases alternate between small additions, like runningratio2() with an adaptive window sized to hit a target denominator, and narrow bug fixes in crayons() and jiggle(). Version 0.92 removes an include that had begun warning on CRAN.
What is socialmixr?
socialmixr breaks its one-shot contact_matrix() call into a composable pipeline.
socialmixr builds age-structured social contact matrices from survey data for infectious-disease modelling. Version 0.6.0 replaces the monolithic contact_matrix() entry point with a chain of composable steps — filter, assign age groups, weigh, compute, then symmetrise, split or convert per capita — behind a new contact_matrix S3 class. Survey downloading is being handed off to a separate contactsurveys package.
broman vs socialmixr: editorial side-by-side
broman
0.0ANALYTICS
A statistician's personal toolbox, growing one plotting utility at a time
◆ Current state
broman is Karl Broman's collection of personal R utilities — base-graphics plotting helpers such as grayplot, dotplot and timeplot, running-window summaries, and assorted conveniences. Recent releases alternate between small additions, like runningratio2() with an adaptive window sized to hit a target denominator, and narrow bug fixes in crayons() and jiggle(). Version 0.92 removes an include that had begun warning on CRAN.
◆ Where it's heading
The additions cluster around two themes: time-axis plotting and running-window summaries, both of which have been extended across several releases. Nothing here is planned in the usual sense — functions appear when the author needs them and bugs are fixed when they surface downstream, as jiggle() did through dotplot(). The C-level cleanup in 0.92 matches the same change made to R/qtl the same week, which is what maintaining a set of packages under one author looks like.
◆ Prediction
Both recent function additions extend existing families rather than starting new ones, so the next release is most likely another variant in the running-window or time-plotting group, or a fix surfaced by one of the author's other packages.
socialmixr
0.0ANALYTICS
socialmixr breaks its one-shot contact_matrix() call into a composable pipeline.
◆ Current state
socialmixr builds age-structured social contact matrices from survey data for infectious-disease modelling. Version 0.6.0 replaces the monolithic contact_matrix() entry point with a chain of composable steps — filter, assign age groups, weigh, compute, then symmetrise, split or convert per capita — behind a new contact_matrix S3 class. Survey downloading is being handed off to a separate contactsurveys package.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0 is decomposition: first extracting helpers like assign_age_groups(), then moving downloads out of the package, and now exposing every stage of matrix construction as its own verb. Breaking changes are accepted at each step — preserved empty age groups, arrays instead of xtabs, [N,Inf) labels — with the new class inheriting from list so existing $matrix access keeps working. The label change is explicitly aligned with the contactmatrix package.
◆ Prediction
Expect the deprecated dotted argument names and the remaining in-package download paths to be removed once the contactsurveys handoff completes, leaving contact_matrix() as a thin wrapper over the pipeline.
Alternatives to broman and socialmixr
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 broman or socialmixr.
geodist
geodist stays dependency-free and fast, and warns you when 'cheap' distances stop being honest.
errors
errors keeps making uncertainty print the way each scientific field expects.
CMAQ
CMAQ went global in v5.5, and has been patching that surface ever since.
enpls
enpls has not changed its statistics since 2016 — only its website, twice.
grex
grex is a lookup table with a version number — it ships when the annotation moves.
See all broman alternatives → · See all socialmixr alternatives →
Recent activity from broman and socialmixr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agosocialmixrContact matrices become a composable pipeline ⚡
- 6mo agosocialmixrPatch: load_survey() handles files without cont_id
- 6mo agosocialmixrAge-group assignment and population lookup split out
- 8mo agobromanRemove R_ext/PrtUtil.h include flagged by CRAN
- 10mo agobromanFix exact-name matching in crayons()
- 11mo agobromanFix jiggle() with factors missing levels
- 1y agobromanrunningratio2() uses an adaptive window
- 1y agosocialmixrFaster survey loading and cached Zenodo lookups
- 2y agobromantimeplot() added; running functions accept NAs
- 2y agobromantime_axis() added for date-time axis labels
- 2y agosocialmixrcontact_matrix() now takes survey objects only
- 2y agosocialmixrTest fixes for machine-precision failures
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between broman and socialmixr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. broman and socialmixr 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 broman better than socialmixr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. broman and socialmixr 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 broman?
Top broman alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "broman alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/broman-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to socialmixr?
Top socialmixr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "socialmixr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/socialmixr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.