MetaboAnalystR
The R engine behind MetaboAnalyst closes the gap from raw spectra to biological interpretation
Comparison · Analytics
cIRT vs lazyeval
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cIRT and lazyeval — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
cIRT vs lazyeval: at a glance
What is cIRT?
A choice-based IRT model published once in 2019 and kept compiling ever since
cIRT implements Choice Item Response Theory, jointly modelling which item a respondent picks and how they perform on it — the setting where subjects choose between a harder and an easier question and the choice itself carries information. It comes out of the TMSA Lab, is built on Rcpp and RcppArmadillo, and has had one substantive release since reaching CRAN. Everything after early 2019 is build-system and toolchain upkeep.
What is lazyeval?
A package retired in 2017 just got rewritten against R's public C API.
lazyeval was the tidyverse's pre-rlang non-standard evaluation layer, formally set aside in 2017 when tidy evaluation replaced it. After eight and a half years without a release, 0.2.3 arrives as a compliance rewrite: the implementation now uses R's public C API, and the release note states it may differ from the historical one in subtle ways. Nothing about the package's role has changed.
cIRT vs lazyeval: editorial side-by-side
cIRT
0.0ANALYTICS
A choice-based IRT model published once in 2019 and kept compiling ever since
◆ Current state
cIRT implements Choice Item Response Theory, jointly modelling which item a respondent picks and how they perform on it — the setting where subjects choose between a harder and an easier question and the choice itself carries information. It comes out of the TMSA Lab, is built on Rcpp and RcppArmadillo, and has had one substantive release since reaching CRAN. Everything after early 2019 is build-system and toolchain upkeep.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's whole functional history fits in a two-day window in January 2019, when the CRAN release and its immediate follow-ups were tagged in one batch, followed a day later by a release enabling C++11 and OpenMP and fixing the choice generation procedure. Since then the releases track other people's deprecations: Armadillo dropping conversions, RcppArmadillo requiring a different Makevars, R raising its floor. The 2025 release is entirely of that kind, down to swapping the README to Quarto.
◆ Prediction
The dependency floors were just raised to current Rcpp and RcppArmadillo, so the next release is most likely the one after Armadillo deprecates something else.
lazyeval
0.0ANALYTICS
A package retired in 2017 just got rewritten against R's public C API.
◆ Current state
lazyeval was the tidyverse's pre-rlang non-standard evaluation layer, formally set aside in 2017 when tidy evaluation replaced it. After eight and a half years without a release, 0.2.3 arrives as a compliance rewrite: the implementation now uses R's public C API, and the release note states it may differ from the historical one in subtle ways. Nothing about the package's role has changed.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a dormancy revival driven entirely from outside, R core tightening what counts as the public C API forces packages using older internals to be rewritten or be archived. lazyeval is still a dependency deep in older package trees, so keeping it installable matters more than developing it. The caveat about subtle behavioural differences is the notable part: a package nobody is developing has changed behaviour in ways its release note declines to enumerate.
◆ Prediction
Expect no further development, only additional compliance releases if R core tightens the C API again.
Alternatives to cIRT and lazyeval
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 cIRT or lazyeval.
fmtr
Rebuilding SAS's formatting layer in R, one format specification at a time
betaselectr
Standardised coefficients for models where standardising everything is wrong — but the feed only links out
SSN2
Stream-network spatial models learning to run on data that no longer fits in memory
BiocManager
Bioconductor's installer, frozen at 1.30.x and tuned almost entirely through environment variables
dcurves
Decision curve analysis, settled since 2022 and now moving only when its neighbours do
See all cIRT alternatives → · See all lazyeval alternatives →
Recent activity from cIRT and lazyeval
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agolazyevalReimplemented against R's public C API after eight years dormant
- 10mo agocIRTArmadillo deprecations cleared, build config modernised
- 4y agocIRTperson() argument fix and dependency floor raise
- 6y agocIRTpkgdown site added, CI moved to GitHub Actions
- 7y agocIRTOpenMP enabled and the choice generation bug fixed
- 7y agocIRTcIRT 1.0.0: Initial Package Released to CRAN
- 7y agocIRTChoice matrix gains hard and easy question ids
- 8y agolazyevalDevelopment ends as the tidyverse moves to tidy evaluation
- 10y agolazyevalFormula-based lazy evaluation system introduced
- 11y agolazyevallazyeval 0.1.10
- 11y agolazyevallazyeval 0.1.9
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cIRT and lazyeval?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. cIRT and lazyeval 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 cIRT better than lazyeval?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cIRT and lazyeval 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 cIRT?
Top cIRT alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cIRT alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cirt for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to lazyeval?
Top lazyeval alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "lazyeval alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/lazyeval for the full list with editorial commentary on each.