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Comparison · Infra & APIs
checkhelper vs coga
A side-by-side editorial comparison of checkhelper and coga — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
checkhelper vs coga: at a glance
What is checkhelper?
checkhelper grew from a check wrapper into a CRAN pre-submission auditor.
1.0.0 added a whole audit_* family — audit_downloads(), audit_description(), audit_dontrun() and audit_citation() — each parsing package source statically and returning a tibble of hits paired with a suggested fix. The package is now defending that position: 1.0.1 rc1 is a submission candidate answering a CRAN archival notice, after roxygen2 8.x moved DESCRIPTION's RoxygenNote field and broke a find_missing_tags() test fixture.
What is coga?
A gamma-convolution density package that reached completion in 2018 and has coasted since.
coga computes densities, distribution functions and random numbers for convolutions of gamma distributions, with the numerical work in C++ through Rcpp. It has been feature-complete since 1.0.0 in 2018, and every release in the seven years since has been maintenance: a documentation alias for CRAN, a compiler warning, a maintainer email change, and an Rcpp update requiring Rf_error calls to be guarded. The one functional addition in that period, in 1.1.0, was an unexported function added explicitly for research use.
checkhelper vs coga: editorial side-by-side
checkhelper
2.5INFRA · APIS
checkhelper grew from a check wrapper into a CRAN pre-submission auditor.
◆ Current state
1.0.0 added a whole audit_* family — audit_downloads(), audit_description(), audit_dontrun() and audit_citation() — each parsing package source statically and returning a tibble of hits paired with a suggested fix. The package is now defending that position: 1.0.1 rc1 is a submission candidate answering a CRAN archival notice, after roxygen2 8.x moved DESCRIPTION's RoxygenNote field and broke a find_missing_tags() test fixture.
◆ Where it's heading
The design commitment is static analysis — AST walks via getParseData(), line-by-line Rd reading, no eval() and no namespace loading — so the tool can report on a package it never runs. That commitment is what made the roxygen2 8.x break survivable: the audit pipeline itself was verified correct under 8.1.0 and only the test scaffolding had to go, now guarded by a dedicated regression test. fix_globals(write = TRUE) is being sanded down in parallel, no longer flattening per-function grouping comments or writing a degenerate empty globalVariables() shell.
◆ Prediction
The immediate move is the 1.0.1 submission itself, clearing the archival notice. Beyond that, each additional CRAN incoming-check rule remains a candidate for another audit_* function; the open question these notes still leave is whether the family ever gets a single combined entry point.
coga
0.0INFRA · APIS
A gamma-convolution density package that reached completion in 2018 and has coasted since.
◆ Current state
coga computes densities, distribution functions and random numbers for convolutions of gamma distributions, with the numerical work in C++ through Rcpp. It has been feature-complete since 1.0.0 in 2018, and every release in the seven years since has been maintenance: a documentation alias for CRAN, a compiler warning, a maintainer email change, and an Rcpp update requiring Rf_error calls to be guarded. The one functional addition in that period, in 1.1.0, was an unexported function added explicitly for research use.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a finished package being kept alive rather than developed. The releases track external pressure exactly: CRAN documentation requirements, compiler warnings, Rcpp API changes. Its maintenance is visibly shared with smam, the same maintainer's animal-movement package, which received the same email update, the same format-security fix and the same Rcpp guard within a minute or twenty of coga each time. Neither package is being extended; both are being kept installable.
◆ Prediction
Expect nothing but CRAN and toolchain maintenance, arriving whenever Rcpp or R's check requirements change, and arriving alongside smam. There is no signal in these entries of planned functional work.
Alternatives to checkhelper and coga
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 checkhelper or coga.
tidyprompt
An R prompting framework hands its provider plumbing to ellmer and inherits MCP tools
statsExpressions
A statistics backend whose release history is mostly other people's weather
LightLogR
Wearable light-exposure data gets circular time and versioned device formats
lares
One analyst's toolbox, still shipping: Meta MMM tooling beside Wordle solvers
serocalculator
A seroincidence engine grows up: whole API renamed, then clustered survey designs
See all checkhelper alternatives → · See all coga alternatives →
Recent activity from checkhelper and coga
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agocheckhelpercheckhelper 1.0.1 rc1 (CRAN submission candidate)
- 3mo agocheckhelperA static audit_* family for CRAN pre-submission checks ⚡
- 5mo agocogaRcpp attributes regenerated; email updated
- 2y agocheckhelperTest fixes for roxygen2 changes
- 2y agocogaMaintainer email updated
- 2y agocogaCompiler format-security warning resolved
- 3y agocogaPackage documentation alias added for CRAN
- 3y agocheckhelpercheckhelper 0.1.0 - First CRAN Release
- 6y agocogaUnexported density variant added for research use
- 8y agocoga1.0.0 declares the package complete and documented
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between checkhelper and coga?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. checkhelper 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 checkhelper better than coga?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. checkhelper 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 checkhelper?
Top checkhelper alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "checkhelper alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/checkhelper for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to coga?
Top coga alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "coga alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/coga for the full list with editorial commentary on each.