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constants vs omock

A side-by-side editorial comparison of constants and omock — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

constants vs omock: at a glance

Featureconstantsomock
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesphysical-constants, codata, units, uncertainty-propagationomop-cdm, synthetic-data, test-fixtures, health-data
Last editorial update1h ago9h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is constants?

The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.

constants exposes the CODATA recommended values of the physical constants to R, as a data frame plus symbol lists that carry units, uncertainties, or both. The package reached 1.0.0 on the 2018 CODATA release and has shipped once since, purely to track a units package update. Its surface is small and its release cadence is bound to CODATA, which revises every few years.

Read the full constants trajectory →

What is omock?

A mock-data generator for OMOP studies that keeps widening what it can fake.

omock builds synthetic OMOP Common Data Model tables so packages in the darwin-eu and OHDSI ecosystem can be tested without touching patient data. The 0.7.0 release adds concept set subsetting with its own vignette, unit and value support in mockMeasurement, observation date validation and cohort attrition initialization, while deprecating mockConcepts. Releases arrive as PR digests rather than written notes.

Read the full omock trajectory →

constants vs omock: editorial side-by-side

C
constants
ANALYTICS
0.0

The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.

◆ Current state

constants exposes the CODATA recommended values of the physical constants to R, as a data frame plus symbol lists that carry units, uncertainties, or both. The package reached 1.0.0 on the 2018 CODATA release and has shipped once since, purely to track a units package update. Its surface is small and its release cadence is bound to CODATA, which revises every few years.

◆ Where it's heading

The direction set at 1.0.0 was to stop being a curated convenience wrapper and become a mechanical mirror of NIST. Hand-crafted symbol names were replaced with NIST's own ASCII symbols, categories adopted NIST's, and uncertainty switched from relative to absolute — all framed by the maintainer as necessary to make future CODATA updates routine. On top of that the package gained a correlation matrix and optional integration with the quantities package, moving it from a lookup table toward something that can propagate uncertainty.

◆ Prediction

Having rebuilt the symbol table specifically so CODATA revisions become mechanical, the next substantive release most likely tracks a new CODATA dataset rather than adding API. The experimental correlated-value support, disabled by default at 1.0.0, is the one part these entries flag as unfinished.

O
omock
ANALYTICS
0.0

A mock-data generator for OMOP studies that keeps widening what it can fake.

◆ Current state

omock builds synthetic OMOP Common Data Model tables so packages in the darwin-eu and OHDSI ecosystem can be tested without touching patient data. The 0.7.0 release adds concept set subsetting with its own vignette, unit and value support in mockMeasurement, observation date validation and cohort attrition initialization, while deprecating mockConcepts. Releases arrive as PR digests rather than written notes.

◆ Where it's heading

The package has been moving from generating tables to shipping and managing reference datasets — mockDatasets arrived in 0.4.0, mockCdmFromDataset gained a source argument in 0.5.0, and 0.6.1 added download retry handling plus an internal GiBleed dataset after the hosted files moved. The recent work is filling in CDM fidelity: type concepts, measurement units, attrition, and guards for degenerate cases like an empty person table.

◆ Prediction

Expect coverage to keep extending table by table toward the parts of the CDM that omock still cannot mock, with mockConcepts removed outright once the concept set subsetting path settles.

Alternatives to constants and omock

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 constants or omock.

See all constants alternatives → · See all omock alternatives →

Recent activity from constants and omock

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1mo agoomockConcept set subsetting and richer measurement mocks
  2. 4mo agoomockDelphi dataset added and CDM version bumped
  3. 6mo agoomockDataset downloads survive the storage move
  4. 11mo agoomockJOSS submission tag alongside the 0.5.0 release
  5. 11mo agoomockmockCdmFromDataset gains a source argument
  6. 1y agoomockmockDatasets introduces bundled reference data
  7. 5y agoconstantsCompatibility fix for units 0.7-0
  8. 5y agoconstantsconstants 1.0.0
  9. 8y agoconstantsUnit handling fixes ahead of the 1.0.0 rebuild

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between constants and omock?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. constants and omock 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 constants better than omock?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. constants and omock 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 constants?

Top constants alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "constants alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/constants-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to omock?

Top omock alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "omock alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/omock-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.