zarr-python
Zarr's package split keeps producing standalone tools: a server, now a lazy indexer.
Comparison · DevOps
clock vs withr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of clock and withr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
clock vs withr: at a glance
What is clock?
clock is turning calendar conventions lubridate hard-coded into parameterized types.
clock provides typed date-time handling for R on top of the C++20 date library, with explicit calendar and time-point types instead of implicit coercion. The visible history splits between genuine arithmetic additions and a long tail of compiler and CRAN-policy repairs. Recent releases are mostly the latter, with 0.7.3 raising the tzdb and R floors.
What is withr?
withr rebuilt defer() on base R's own on.exit(), and got much faster for it
withr provides the with_ and local_ functions that temporarily change global state and restore it on exit - the cleanup primitive under most of the tidyverse test suites. Version 3.0.0 reimplemented defer() as a thin wrapper over base::on.exit(), which the maintainers made possible by contributing the required arguments to R 3.5 itself. Everything since has been small correctness work.
clock vs withr: editorial side-by-side
clock
0.0DEVOPS
clock is turning calendar conventions lubridate hard-coded into parameterized types.
◆ Current state
clock provides typed date-time handling for R on top of the C++20 date library, with explicit calendar and time-point types instead of implicit coercion. The visible history splits between genuine arithmetic additions and a long tail of compiler and CRAN-policy repairs. Recent releases are mostly the latter, with 0.7.3 raising the tzdb and R floors.
◆ Where it's heading
The feature arc moves toward making conventions explicit and parameterized rather than fixed: counting units between dates in 0.6.0, duration modulus and integer division alongside it, then a week-start-parameterized calendar in 0.7.0 that subsumes both ISO and CDC epidemiological weeks. Since 0.7.0 the package has added almost no surface, spending releases on C++ toolchain compliance instead. The 0.7.3 parsing change, following upstream to character-width rather than digit-count parsing, is the one recent break users must handle.
◆ Prediction
The last three releases are maintenance-shaped, so the next most likely tracks another tzdb or compiler requirement rather than adding calendars.
withr
0.0DEVOPS
withr rebuilt defer() on base R's own on.exit(), and got much faster for it
◆ Current state
withr provides the with_ and local_ functions that temporarily change global state and restore it on exit - the cleanup primitive under most of the tidyverse test suites. Version 3.0.0 reimplemented defer() as a thin wrapper over base::on.exit(), which the maintainers made possible by contributing the required arguments to R 3.5 itself. Everything since has been small correctness work.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc here is a package pushing its own machinery down into base R and then living off the result. Once defer() became on.exit(), the remaining work is about where cleanup is allowed to happen - knitr documents, source() calls, the global environment, session end - and about restoring state correctly when an expression exits early. Releases are now infrequent and CRAN-driven.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued low-volume releases fixing edge cases in where deferred handlers run; with the core delegated to base R, there is little left that would prompt a larger change.
Alternatives to clock and withr
Other DevOps 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 clock or withr.
ellipsis
ellipsis' checks live in rlang now; the package is a compatibility shim.
httpuv
httpuv ships almost nothing, which is what you want from the web server under Shiny
promises
promises drops R6 for plain environments and wires async work into OpenTelemetry
htmltools
htmltools spends three releases walking back its own fill-layout opinions
xml2
xml2 relicensed to MIT, then moved its hot accessors from S3 into C
Recent activity from clock and withr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agowithrlocal_seed() actually preserves the seed now
- 1y agoclockParsing switches to character widths; tzdb 0.5.0 required
- 1y agoclockdiff() method added for time points and calendars
- 1y agowithrlocal_language() no longer warns when set to C
- 2y agoclockInternal C++ cleanup for CRAN warnings
- 2y agowithrdefer() becomes a thin wrapper over base::on.exit() ⚡
- 3y agoclockyear_week_day() calendar and spanning sequences added ⚡
- 4y agoclockZero-length sequences allowed; dependency floors raised
- 4y agowithrCleanup works inside Rmd and source(); with_() gains a getter
- 4y agoclockdate_count_between() and duration modulus arithmetic
- 4y agowithrNew maintainer; handlers run at session end
- 5y agowithrlocal_options() can set NULL; with_seed() controls RNG kind
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between clock and withr?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. clock and withr 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 clock better than withr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. clock and withr 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 DevOps products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to clock?
Top clock alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "clock alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/clock-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to withr?
Top withr alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "withr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/withr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.