tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
cfr vs r2rtf
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cfr and r2rtf — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
cfr vs r2rtf: 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 r2rtf?
The clinical-report table engine learned Chinese, then learned to leave RTF entirely
r2rtf builds the RTF tables, listings and figures that go into clinical study reports, and its recent releases have been about widening who and what it can serve rather than changing how tables are composed. The 1.2.0 release added internationalization — a SimSun font path for Chinese characters plus hyphenation control — and 1.3.0 followed with write_docx() and write_html(), turning the LibreOffice conversion the package had documented into exported functions.
cfr vs r2rtf: 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.
r2rtf
0.0ANALYTICS
The clinical-report table engine learned Chinese, then learned to leave RTF entirely
◆ Current state
r2rtf builds the RTF tables, listings and figures that go into clinical study reports, and its recent releases have been about widening who and what it can serve rather than changing how tables are composed. The 1.2.0 release added internationalization — a SimSun font path for Chinese characters plus hyphenation control — and 1.3.0 followed with write_docx() and write_html(), turning the LibreOffice conversion the package had documented into exported functions.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through the window. One is output reach: RTF remains the composition target, but the artifacts that come out of it now include DOCX and HTML, and page numbering can be made table-relative across multi-page tables. The other is durability under a moving R and font stack — the ANSI/Unicode converter was rebuilt, the LaTeX mapping table generated from code rather than shipped as sysdata, unlist() usage fixed for R 4.5, and graphics-device leaks that produced stray Rplots.pdf closed off.
◆ Prediction
Having exported DOCX and HTML conversion, the likely next step is filling in what those formats lose relative to RTF — pagination and footnote fidelity are the obvious gaps. The i18n path currently covers Chinese only, so additional font families are the other plausible direction.
Alternatives to cfr and r2rtf
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 r2rtf.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
Recent activity from cfr and r2rtf
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7mo agor2rtfDOCX and HTML output become exported functions
- 11mo agor2rtfChinese character support arrives via an i18n font path ⚡
- 1y agor2rtfText colour fixed for figures encoded into RTF
- 1y agor2rtfFootnote handling fixed for R 4.5.0
- 1y agocfrR-devel difftime patch and an individual-data vignette
- 1y agor2rtfUnicode converter rebuilt and mapping table made inspectable
- 2y agocfrSeverity estimator picks its own likelihood approximation
- 2y agocfrDelay-corrected severity and ascertainment estimation on CRAN ⚡
- 2y agor2rtfUTF-8 conversion fix and LibreOffice 7.6 support
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cfr and r2rtf?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. cfr and r2rtf 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 r2rtf?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cfr and r2rtf 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 r2rtf?
Top r2rtf alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "r2rtf alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/r2rtf for the full list with editorial commentary on each.