STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
cfbfastr vs maths.genealogy
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cfbfastr and maths.genealogy — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
cfbfastr vs maths.genealogy: at a glance
What is cfbfastr?
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
cfbfastR retrieves college football data — play-by-play, box scores, betting lines, ratings and recruiting — from the CollegeFootballData API, ESPN endpoints and the sportsdataverse data repository. Version 2.0.0 in September 2025 was the first release in over three years and rebuilt the package against CFBD's v2 API. Every load_cfb_*() function changed its underlying source to comply with CFBD's terms, the play-by-play dataset gained team and game identifiers users previously had to join in themselves, and a batch of new endpoints arrived covering opponent-adjusted metrics, FPI ratings and live scoreboard and play data.
What is maths.genealogy?
A young Mathematics Genealogy client spending its first four releases satisfying CRAN.
maths.genealogy queries the Mathematics Genealogy Project over a WebSocket connection and renders academic advisor-student trees, with plot_grviz() as the visualisation entry point. The package reached CRAN in early 2025 and its functional surface has barely moved since — max_zoom() for deep trees at 0.1.1 is the only user-facing addition in the visible history.
cfbfastr vs maths.genealogy: editorial side-by-side
cfbfastr
0.0ANALYTICS
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
◆ Current state
cfbfastR retrieves college football data — play-by-play, box scores, betting lines, ratings and recruiting — from the CollegeFootballData API, ESPN endpoints and the sportsdataverse data repository. Version 2.0.0 in September 2025 was the first release in over three years and rebuilt the package against CFBD's v2 API. Every load_cfb_*() function changed its underlying source to comply with CFBD's terms, the play-by-play dataset gained team and game identifiers users previously had to join in themselves, and a batch of new endpoints arrived covering opponent-adjusted metrics, FPI ratings and live scoreboard and play data.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's direction is now set by the data provider rather than by its own plans, and that provider has moved to metered access — the free tier is capped at 1,000 calls a month, with limits tied to membership level. cfbd_api_key_info() reporting a user's tier and usage is the clearest sign of that shift: quota is now something an analysis has to manage. The long gap before 2.0.0 and its arrival largely through a first-time contributor also indicate a package sustained by community effort rather than steady maintenance.
◆ Prediction
The live scoreboard and play endpoints are the natural place for the next work, since they are the ones that benefit from in-season iteration. Given the release notes warn users to check their pipelines, follow-up fixes for the changed loading functions are likely before anything new lands.
maths.genealogy
0.0ANALYTICS
A young Mathematics Genealogy client spending its first four releases satisfying CRAN.
◆ Current state
maths.genealogy queries the Mathematics Genealogy Project over a WebSocket connection and renders academic advisor-student trees, with plot_grviz() as the visualisation entry point. The package reached CRAN in early 2025 and its functional surface has barely moved since — max_zoom() for deep trees at 0.1.1 is the only user-facing addition in the visible history.
◆ Where it's heading
Every release after the first is CRAN policy management. Three consecutive entries deal with the same underlying problem: examples that hit a live network resource and therefore fail unpredictably on check machines. The progression from wrapping them in \donttest{} to catching a stray case to rewriting all examples against published API-package guidance shows the maintainer converging on a pattern rather than adding features. That is the normal cost of shipping a network client to CRAN, and it appears to be settling.
◆ Prediction
With the examples problem resolved, the next release is the first plausible opportunity for feature work — likely on the plotting side, given max_zoom() was the sole non-compliance change so far. The entries do not name anything specific in progress.
Alternatives to cfbfastr and maths.genealogy
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 cfbfastr or maths.genealogy.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all cfbfastr alternatives → · See all maths.genealogy alternatives →
Recent activity from cfbfastr and maths.genealogy
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agocfbfastrRebuilt on CFBD API v2 with metered access and live endpoints ⚡
- 1y agomaths.genealogyExamples rewritten to CRAN API-package guidance
- 1y agomaths.genealogyRemaining network-dependent example wrapped in donttest
- 1y agomaths.genealogyDESCRIPTION quoting and donttest example wrapping
- 1y agomaths.genealogyplot_grviz() gains max_zoom for deep trees
- 4y agocfbfastrESPN endpoints and repo-backed loaders added
- 4y agocfbfastrAll outputs standardised as tibbles with a custom class
- 4y agocfbfastrCRAN release with option-restoring cleanup
- 4y agocfbfastrMinor fixes to betting and FPI rating functions
- 4y agocfbfastrESPN scoreboard and play-by-play access, with argument cleanup
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cfbfastr and maths.genealogy?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. cfbfastr and maths.genealogy 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 cfbfastr better than maths.genealogy?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cfbfastr and maths.genealogy 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 cfbfastr?
Top cfbfastr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cfbfastr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cfbfastr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to maths.genealogy?
Top maths.genealogy alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "maths.genealogy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/maths-genealogy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.