humind
The MSNI humanitarian needs framework as code, rewritten and re-broken every year
Comparison · Infra & APIs
campsismod vs slendr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of campsismod and slendr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
campsismod vs slendr: at a glance
What is campsismod?
The model layer under Campsis, renamed in step with it and increasingly JSON-addressable.
Campsismod holds the model object layer for the Campsis pharmacometric simulation suite: reading, editing and writing model definitions that Campsis then simulates. Its recent releases track a single programme, adding a JSON route into model objects and then renaming the whole API to snake_case in 1.4.0, a week before Campsis 1.9.0 did the same. Release notes are terse issue lists, so the reasoning behind each change has to be read from the sibling package.
What is slendr?
Population-genetic simulation in R, opened up to selection and finally easier to install.
slendr specifies spatial and non-spatial population-genetic models in R and simulates them through SLiM or msprime, returning tree sequences that tskit then analyses. Two threads dominate the current releases: keeping in step with fast-moving backends, with SLiM 5.1, pyslim 1.1.0 and Python 3.13 now required, and reducing the setup burden that its Python dependency imposes. Version 1.5.0 adds ephemeral uv-based virtual environments, so init_env(uv = TRUE) can stand in for creating a permanent environment with setup_env().
campsismod vs slendr: editorial side-by-side
campsismod
2.5INFRA · APIS
The model layer under Campsis, renamed in step with it and increasingly JSON-addressable.
◆ Current state
Campsismod holds the model object layer for the Campsis pharmacometric simulation suite: reading, editing and writing model definitions that Campsis then simulates. Its recent releases track a single programme, adding a JSON route into model objects and then renaming the whole API to snake_case in 1.4.0, a week before Campsis 1.9.0 did the same. Release notes are terse issue lists, so the reasoning behind each change has to be read from the sibling package.
◆ Where it's heading
This package moves when Campsis needs it to move. The JSON constructor landed here in 1.3.0 and reached Campsis datasets a day later; parameter uncertainty generation was handed down from Campsis in that package's 1.6.0; and the snake_case migration started here before propagating up. That ordering makes Campsismod the place where suite-wide interface decisions are taken first, even though the visible payoff shows up in Campsis.
◆ Prediction
Expect Campsismod to keep absorbing model-level responsibilities that Campsis currently handles, and to extend the JSON mapping to whatever parts of the model object it does not yet cover. The entries give no signal on a 2.0, and with the rename already spent there is little reason to expect one soon.
slendr
0.0INFRA · APIS
Population-genetic simulation in R, opened up to selection and finally easier to install.
◆ Current state
slendr specifies spatial and non-spatial population-genetic models in R and simulates them through SLiM or msprime, returning tree sequences that tskit then analyses. Two threads dominate the current releases: keeping in step with fast-moving backends, with SLiM 5.1, pyslim 1.1.0 and Python 3.13 now required, and reducing the setup burden that its Python dependency imposes. Version 1.5.0 adds ephemeral uv-based virtual environments, so init_env(uv = TRUE) can stand in for creating a permanent environment with setup_env().
◆ Where it's heading
Since the 1.0.0 release added non-neutral simulation, the work has shifted from capability to friction. A large share of recent notes concerns Python environment handling, conda activation races on Windows, dependency pruning that made shiny optional, and argument names that misled users, as when gene_flow()'s rate argument turned out to mean total ancestry proportion rather than a rate. That is the profile of a package whose scientific surface is settled and whose remaining problems are the ones users actually hit.
◆ Prediction
Expect the uv-based environment path to move from fallback to default once it has proven itself, given the notes already describe an environment variable for making it so. The deprecated rate argument in gene_flow() is explicitly slated for removal in a future major release, which is the clearest signal here of what a 2.0 would contain.
Alternatives to campsismod and slendr
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 campsismod or slendr.
inlabru
A Bayesian spatial modelling package rebuilding its foundations one breaking release at a time
afcharts
UK government chart styling in ggplot2, chasing ggplot2 v4 and stretching its palette to five.
coga
A gamma-convolution density package that reached completion in 2018 and has coasted since.
smam
Animal-movement models in R, where new stochastic processes arrive years apart.
baseq
A basic DNA and RNA sequence toolkit that went quiet for three years, then jumped to 2.0.
See all campsismod alternatives → · See all slendr alternatives →
Recent activity from campsismod and slendr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 21d agocampsismodsnake_case migration lands here first
- 1mo agoslendrEphemeral uv Python environments remove the setup step
- 3mo agocampsismodBundled model suite refreshed
- 5mo agocampsismodJSON argument added to the CampsisModel constructor
- 7mo agoslendrgene_flow() separates migration rate from ancestry proportion
- 7mo agocampsismodJSON import for Campsis models
- 9mo agoslendrshiny made optional; SLiM 5.1 and Python 3.13 required
- 1y agoslendrconda activation reverted to a slower but reliable path
- 1y agoslendrBackends raised to SLiM 5.0, tskit 0.6.4 and msprime 1.3.4
- 1y agocampsismodreplaceAll fixed for unrecognised statements
- 1y agocampsismodPerformance tests skipped on CRAN
- 1y agoslendrNon-neutral models arrive; slim() interface simplified ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between campsismod and slendr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. campsismod 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 campsismod better than slendr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. campsismod 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to campsismod?
Top campsismod alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "campsismod alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/campsismod for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to slendr?
Top slendr alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "slendr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/slendr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.