fillpattern
Pattern fills for ggplot2, hardened against the ways users write sizes
Comparison · Analytics
condformat vs robma
A side-by-side editorial comparison of condformat and robma — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
condformat vs robma: at a glance
What is condformat?
A dormant table-formatting package woken by a 20-PR correctness and coverage sweep
condformat applies conditional formatting rules to R data frames and renders them to HTML, LaTeX, Excel and grob output. After 0.10.1 in 2023 it went quiet for nearly three years. Version 0.11.0 breaks that silence with a single-maintainer sweep of roughly twenty pull requests: CI modernized across R-devel, release and oldrel; lockcells fixed for LaTeX and grob output; a rule_fill_bar() crash at zero width; theme_htmlTable() no longer dropping chained arguments; and a .col pronoun added across all rules.
What is robma?
RoBMA 4.0 tears out its own constructor surface and rebuilds on one class hierarchy
RoBMA fits robust Bayesian model-averaged meta-analyses that adjust for publication bias. The 3.x line grew by accretion: separate constructors for each model family (RoBMA.reg, NoBMA, BiBMA and their .reg variants), a spike-and-slab algorithm in 3.3.0 that made estimation fast enough to matter, then a steady stream of post-estimation tooling gated on that algorithm — heterogeneity summaries, residuals, funnel plots, z-curve conversion, predict, extract, pooled and adjusted effects. Version 4.0.0 in May 2026 collapses all of it into a unified brma class hierarchy.
condformat vs robma: editorial side-by-side
condformat
0.0ANALYTICS
A dormant table-formatting package woken by a 20-PR correctness and coverage sweep
◆ Current state
condformat applies conditional formatting rules to R data frames and renders them to HTML, LaTeX, Excel and grob output. After 0.10.1 in 2023 it went quiet for nearly three years. Version 0.11.0 breaks that silence with a single-maintainer sweep of roughly twenty pull requests: CI modernized across R-devel, release and oldrel; lockcells fixed for LaTeX and grob output; a rule_fill_bar() crash at zero width; theme_htmlTable() no longer dropping chained arguments; and a .col pronoun added across all rules.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a maintenance-debt payoff rather than a change of direction. The bulk of 0.11.0 is test coverage — render_gtable, knit_print, theme_grob, render_xlsx and rule_fill_bar all gained tests — which reads as a maintainer establishing a safety net before touching anything further. The .col pronoun and scalar recycling in the text rules are the only real API additions, and both smooth inconsistencies rather than extend the rule vocabulary.
◆ Prediction
With coverage and CI now in place, the next release is more likely to extend rule or output-format support than to continue with fixes, though the three-year gap makes cadence hard to call from these entries alone.
robma
0.0ANALYTICS
RoBMA 4.0 tears out its own constructor surface and rebuilds on one class hierarchy
◆ Current state
RoBMA fits robust Bayesian model-averaged meta-analyses that adjust for publication bias. The 3.x line grew by accretion: separate constructors for each model family (RoBMA.reg, NoBMA, BiBMA and their .reg variants), a spike-and-slab algorithm in 3.3.0 that made estimation fast enough to matter, then a steady stream of post-estimation tooling gated on that algorithm — heterogeneity summaries, residuals, funnel plots, z-curve conversion, predict, extract, pooled and adjusted effects. Version 4.0.0 in May 2026 collapses all of it into a unified brma class hierarchy.
◆ Where it's heading
The 3.x series solved the modeling problem and left an interface problem behind: a caller had to know which of six constructors matched their data type, and argument names differed across them. 4.0.0 resolves that by making the model family a set of arguments rather than a function name, and by standardizing input naming on metafor-style conventions. It shipped one day after BayesTools 0.3.0, the author's own upstream infrastructure package, whose new standardization and prior-transformation machinery this rewrite depends on.
◆ Prediction
A rewrite this wide usually needs a follow-up, so expect 4.0.x patches addressing migration gaps as users hit the removed constructors and renamed arguments.
Alternatives to condformat and robma
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 condformat or robma.
gcube
gcube's recent releases are all packaging metadata, not simulation code
cubist
The R port of Quinlan's Cubist gets reproducibility fixes, not new modelling
ggstats
ggstats keeps widening what a coefficient or Likert plot can be
ecodive
ecodive rebuilt itself into a broad diversity-metric library, breaking as it went
simStateSpace
State-space data simulation for R, filled in one function at a time
See all condformat alternatives → · See all robma alternatives →
Recent activity from condformat and robma
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agocondformatEnds a three-year gap with a 20-PR fix and coverage sweep
- 3mo agorobmaUnifies six model constructors into one brma class hierarchy ⚡
- 8mo agorobmaRoBMA 3.6.1
- 11mo agorobmaRoBMA 3.6.0
- 1y agorobmaRoBMA 3.5.1
- 1y agorobmaRoBMA 3.5.0
- 1y agorobmaRoBMA 3.4.0
- 2y agocondformatDocumentation fixes and internal S3 method registration
- 3y agocondformatcondformat2grob() gains a draw argument for composite figures
- 6y agocondformatDrops the lazyeval API and replaces xlsx with openxlsx
- 7y agocondformatAdds bar, bold and color rules plus grob rendering
- 8y agocondformatIntroduces the tidy-evaluation API alongside the old one
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between condformat and robma?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. condformat and robma 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 condformat better than robma?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. condformat and robma 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 condformat?
Top condformat alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "condformat alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/condformat for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to robma?
Top robma alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "robma alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/robma for the full list with editorial commentary on each.