tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
Comparison · Analytics
CatastRo vs geodist
A side-by-side editorial comparison of CatastRo and geodist — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
CatastRo vs geodist: at a glance
What is CatastRo?
Spain's cadastre client spent 1.0.0 breaking its own cache to become a tidy, httr2-native package.
CatastRo pulls parcels, buildings, addresses and WMS map layers from the Spanish Cadastre into R. The 1.0.0 line rebuilt the codebase on httr2, reorganized the cache into topic-based subfolders and moved persistent storage from rappdirs to tools::R_user_dir(), a change that invalidates every pre-1.0.0 cache. The two releases since are documentation and an AI-assisted internal refactor.
What is geodist?
geodist stays dependency-free and fast, and warns you when 'cheap' distances stop being honest.
geodist computes geodesic distances between coordinate pairs in C with no dependencies, offering several measures that trade accuracy for speed — including a 'cheap' approximation used by default. The API is small and largely finished; 0.1.0 added geodist_min() for nearest-match lookups and 0.1.1 is a compiler warning fix.
CatastRo vs geodist: editorial side-by-side
CatastRo
0.0ANALYTICS
Spain's cadastre client spent 1.0.0 breaking its own cache to become a tidy, httr2-native package.
◆ Current state
CatastRo pulls parcels, buildings, addresses and WMS map layers from the Spanish Cadastre into R. The 1.0.0 line rebuilt the codebase on httr2, reorganized the cache into topic-based subfolders and moved persistent storage from rappdirs to tools::R_user_dir(), a change that invalidates every pre-1.0.0 cache. The two releases since are documentation and an AI-assisted internal refactor.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is consolidation, not expansion: the retrieval surface has been stable since 0.3.0 added street names to addresses, while the maintainer has spent the releases since standardizing transport, output types and messaging. All functions now return tibbles or sf objects with tibble data, and cli handles user-facing output. The same modernization is being applied across the maintainer's other Spanish-data packages.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next releases to stay in the 1.0.x patch range — documentation, cli wording and CRAN upkeep — unless the Cadastre publishes a new service worth wrapping.
geodist
0.0ANALYTICS
geodist stays dependency-free and fast, and warns you when 'cheap' distances stop being honest.
◆ Current state
geodist computes geodesic distances between coordinate pairs in C with no dependencies, offering several measures that trade accuracy for speed — including a 'cheap' approximation used by default. The API is small and largely finished; 0.1.0 added geodist_min() for nearest-match lookups and 0.1.1 is a compiler warning fix.
◆ Where it's heading
Development has been about making the speed-accuracy trade visible rather than hiding it. The 0.0.6 release added messages telling users to pick a different measure once the default cheap approximation is applied beyond 100km, where its error stops being negligible. Around that, the work is input handling — tibble support, better lon/lat column matching, vector inputs — and hardening the C code. It is a package that treats being small and correct as the feature.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued low-frequency maintenance: compiler warnings and geodesic source updates account for three of the last six releases, and the function surface has grown by only two entries in five years.
Alternatives to CatastRo and geodist
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 CatastRo or geodist.
tern.mmrm
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
ggmagnify
A single-purpose ggplot2 inset tool, refining the same three arguments.
symengine
An R symbolic-maths binding whose changelog is really the C++ core's release notes.
gtfstools
gtfstools stopped guarding its own object model and started accepting everyone else's.
quantities
The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.
See all CatastRo alternatives → · See all geodist alternatives →
Recent activity from CatastRo and geodist
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agoCatastRoAI-assisted internal refactor and cli message pass
- 3mo agoCatastRoDocumentation-only patch release
- 5mo agoCatastRo1.0.0 rebuilds on httr2 and invalidates every existing cache ⚡
- 1y agogeodistgeodist 0.1.1 clears a clang warning in geodesic.c
- 1y agoCatastRoDocumentation and URL refresh
- 2y agoCatastRoCadastre service entry points updated
- 2y agogeodistgeodist 0.1.0 adds geodist_min() for nearest matches
- 2y agoCatastRohttr to httr2 migration, declared invisible to users
- 3y agogeodistgeodist 0.0.8 updates geodesic source, fixes clang warnings
- 5y agogeodistgeodist 0.0.7 improves lon/lat column matching and tibbles
- 5y agogeodistgeodist 0.0.6 warns when cheap distances exceed 100km
- 6y agogeodistgeodist 0.0.4 adds geodist_vec() for vector inputs
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between CatastRo and geodist?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. CatastRo and geodist 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 CatastRo better than geodist?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. CatastRo and geodist 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 CatastRo?
Top CatastRo alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "CatastRo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/catastro for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to geodist?
Top geodist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "geodist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/geodist-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.