qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
cholera vs fossilsim
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cholera and fossilsim — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
cholera vs fossilsim: at a glance
What is cholera?
John Snow's 1854 cholera map is being rebuilt on real geographic coordinates.
cholera packages the Broad Street cholera outbreak data with tools to recompute pump neighbourhoods by Voronoi and walking distance. The last two releases carried the dataset from Snow's original plate coordinates onto georeferenced longitude and latitude, exposed through a latlong = TRUE argument on most functions. Function naming and plotting APIs are being tidied at the same pace.
What is fossilsim?
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
FossilSim is a mature R package for simulating fossil records on phylogenetic trees, and its release cadence reflects that: long gaps punctuated by a single capability addition. The last four releases span three years, with the most recent being a compatibility sync to its companion Shiny front-end rather than new functionality. The core simulation surface has been stable since 2022.
cholera vs fossilsim: editorial side-by-side
cholera
0.0ANALYTICS
John Snow's 1854 cholera map is being rebuilt on real geographic coordinates.
◆ Current state
cholera packages the Broad Street cholera outbreak data with tools to recompute pump neighbourhoods by Voronoi and walking distance. The last two releases carried the dataset from Snow's original plate coordinates onto georeferenced longitude and latitude, exposed through a latlong = TRUE argument on most functions. Function naming and plotting APIs are being tidied at the same pace.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is clear and sustained: convert a historical, self-referential coordinate system into one that interoperates with modern GIS. Each release extends latlong coverage to more datasets — pumps, roads, landmarks, and now the plague pit and map frame — while archiving the older prototypes. Parallelisation and the walking-distance solver were reworked along the way to keep the heavier computations usable.
◆ Prediction
Remaining non-georeferenced pieces and the archived latlong prototypes are the obvious next targets, alongside continued consolidation of the add*()/plot*() function pairs.
fossilsim
0.0ANALYTICS
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
◆ Current state
FossilSim is a mature R package for simulating fossil records on phylogenetic trees, and its release cadence reflects that: long gaps punctuated by a single capability addition. The last four releases span three years, with the most recent being a compatibility sync to its companion Shiny front-end rather than new functionality. The core simulation surface has been stable since 2022.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc runs from sampling mechanics toward simulating what the organisms actually were. Version 2.2.0 taught the package to handle occurrence data for occurrence birth-death models; 2.3.0 then added trait simulation under Mk, BM and OU, which is a different kind of output than fossil ages. Since then the work has been maintenance and keeping the FossilSimShiny GUI in step, suggesting the authors consider the current model set feature-complete.
◆ Prediction
The pairing of the 2.3.3 release with a FossilSimShiny version bump points to the GUI, not the library, as where the next visible work lands. The entries do not show enough activity to predict a specific new model family.
Alternatives to cholera and fossilsim
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 cholera or fossilsim.
constants
The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.
austraits
The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.
ggdemetra
A ggplot2 layer for seasonal adjustment output, filling in one plot type at a time.
tern.rbmi
Reference-based multiple imputation tables, shipping only what CRAN checks demand.
tern.mmrm
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
See all cholera alternatives → · See all fossilsim alternatives →
Recent activity from cholera and fossilsim
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agocholeraGeoreferences the plague pit and road segments
- 1y agocholeraLongitude and latitude support across nearly all data and functions ⚡
- 2y agofossilsimCompatibility bump for FossilSimShiny 1.1.2
- 3y agocholeraFirst longitude/latitude prototypes and new distance functions
- 4y agofossilsimBug fixes and documentation cleanup
- 4y agofossilsimTrait simulation arrives: Mk, BM and OU models ⚡
- 4y agocholeraAdds streetNames(); fixes Delaunay and pump-token plotting
- 5y agocholeraIsochrone helpers, weather data and Voronoi location options
- 5y agofossilsimOccurrence handling for the occurrence birth-death model
- 6y agocholeraParallel computation support on Windows
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cholera and fossilsim?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. cholera and fossilsim 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 cholera better than fossilsim?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cholera and fossilsim 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 cholera?
Top cholera alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cholera alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cholera-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to fossilsim?
Top fossilsim alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fossilsim alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fossilsim-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.