metatools
SDTM supplemental-qualifier merging got sturdier, then the package went quiet for two years.
Comparison · Analytics
cfr vs charlatan
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cfr and charlatan — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
cfr vs charlatan: at a glance
What is cfr?
cfr packaged delay-corrected severity estimation, then went quiet on maintenance.
The package estimates disease severity and case ascertainment while correcting for the delay between a case being reported and its outcome being known. After the 0.1.1 rework of the estimation internals and a maintainer handover to Adam Kucharski, activity dropped to a vignette and an R-devel compatibility patch in February 2025.
What is charlatan?
R's fake-data generator rebuilt its provider hierarchy so contributors can add one locale without touching the rest.
charlatan generates realistic fake data — names, addresses, phone numbers, jobs, internet artefacts — across many locales, following the same model as faker in Python and Perl. The 0.6.1 release reworked the provider class hierarchy so locale-specific providers inherit from a parent, and 0.6.2 since has been a documentation rebuild that happened to surface a duplicate Norwegian phone number pattern. Activity is sparse and bursty.
cfr vs charlatan: editorial side-by-side
cfr
0.0ANALYTICS
cfr packaged delay-corrected severity estimation, then went quiet on maintenance.
◆ Current state
The package estimates disease severity and case ascertainment while correcting for the delay between a case being reported and its outcome being known. After the 0.1.1 rework of the estimation internals and a maintainer handover to Adam Kucharski, activity dropped to a vignette and an R-devel compatibility patch in February 2025.
◆ Where it's heading
The methodological work is done and consolidated: likelihood approximation is now selected automatically from outbreak size and an initial severity estimate, and the internals were renamed with a dot prefix to close the public surface down to cfr_static(), cfr_rolling() and the data-preparation generic. Releases since have been documentation and compatibility only.
◆ Prediction
The 0.1.0 notes flagged time-varying ascertainment as future work and it has not appeared in the two releases since; nothing in these entries indicates when or whether it lands.
charlatan
0.0ANALYTICS
R's fake-data generator rebuilt its provider hierarchy so contributors can add one locale without touching the rest.
◆ Current state
charlatan generates realistic fake data — names, addresses, phone numbers, jobs, internet artefacts — across many locales, following the same model as faker in Python and Perl. The 0.6.1 release reworked the provider class hierarchy so locale-specific providers inherit from a parent, and 0.6.2 since has been a documentation rebuild that happened to surface a duplicate Norwegian phone number pattern. Activity is sparse and bursty.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's value scales with locale coverage, and its releases track that: early versions added data-type providers, middle versions added locales one contributor at a time, and 0.6.1 attacked the bottleneck by restructuring the class hierarchy so a locale can override a single function. Development has effectively been handed to contributors, with maintainer releases reduced to docs rebuilds and CRAN compliance.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next substantive release to be an accumulation of contributed locales and providers arriving through the new parent-provider structure, rather than maintainer-driven feature work.
Alternatives to cfr and charlatan
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 cfr or charlatan.
marquee
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
logrx
A clinical-script logger that stopped shipping after its 0.2 line, changelogs made of merged PRs.
lobstr
R's object inspector is losing its view of the internals as CRAN closes off the private C API.
GSODR
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
giscoR
giscoR's 1.0 moved its dataset index into the cache, so new Eurostat releases arrive without a package update.
See all cfr alternatives → · See all charlatan alternatives →
Recent activity from cfr and charlatan
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7mo agocharlatanDocs rebuild surfaces a duplicate Norwegian phone pattern
- 1y agocfrR-devel difftime patch and an individual-data vignette
- 1y agocharlatanProvider classes restructured so locales can override single functions ⚡
- 2y agocfrSeverity estimator picks its own likelihood approximation
- 2y agocfrDelay-corrected severity and ascertainment estimation on CRAN ⚡
- 6y agocharlatanNew locales and providers; allowed_locales() added
- 7y agocharlatanLocale naming standardised; French and Danish data corrected
- 8y agocharlatancharlatan v0.2.2
- 8y agocharlatanSix new providers broaden charlatan beyond names and addresses
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cfr and charlatan?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. cfr and charlatan 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 cfr better than charlatan?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cfr and charlatan 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 cfr?
Top cfr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cfr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cfr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to charlatan?
Top charlatan alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "charlatan alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/charlatan for the full list with editorial commentary on each.