qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
constants vs ss3diags
A side-by-side editorial comparison of constants and ss3diags — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
constants vs ss3diags: at a glance
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.
What is ss3diags?
A fisheries diagnostics package that lives and dies by one upstream dependency.
ss3diags provides residual, retrospective and hindcast cross-validation diagnostics for Stock Synthesis models, sitting directly on top of r4ss. Its recent history is dominated by that dependency: when r4ss 1.50.0 renamed columns across its read and write functions, ss3diags pinned itself to 1.49.3 only, then spent the following release adapting. It now requires r4ss 1.50.0 and above and has moved to native R pipes.
constants vs ss3diags: editorial side-by-side
constants
0.0ANALYTICS
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.
ss3diags
0.0ANALYTICS
A fisheries diagnostics package that lives and dies by one upstream dependency.
◆ Current state
ss3diags provides residual, retrospective and hindcast cross-validation diagnostics for Stock Synthesis models, sitting directly on top of r4ss. Its recent history is dominated by that dependency: when r4ss 1.50.0 renamed columns across its read and write functions, ss3diags pinned itself to 1.49.3 only, then spent the following release adapting. It now requires r4ss 1.50.0 and above and has moved to native R pipes.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is a downstream consumer whose release schedule is largely dictated by NOAA's r4ss. Between compatibility passes it has been shifting documentation from loose cookbook scripts into proper vignettes and shedding bundled Rdata in favour of objects generated at build time. Note that 2.0.3 and 2.1.0 were published the same day, so version order in this feed does not track chronology.
◆ Prediction
The next release most likely follows the next breaking r4ss change; between those, expect continued vignette and parameter-validation work.
Alternatives to constants and ss3diags
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 ss3diags.
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.
fossilsim
A fossil-record simulator that quietly grew a trait-evolution engine.
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 constants alternatives → · See all ss3diags alternatives →
Recent activity from constants and ss3diags
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agoss3diagsAdapts to r4ss 1.50.0 and drops the local binary fetcher
- 1y agoss3diagsPins r4ss to 1.49.3 after upstream breaking changes
- 2y agoss3diagsVignette tutorials replace cookbook scripts
- 3y agoss3diagsSSdeltaMVLN gains variance-covariance and bias options
- 3y agoss3diagsAligns with CRAN r4ss 1.44.0 and shared CI workflows
- 3y agoss3diagsSSrmse() split out as a standalone calculation
- 5y agoconstantsCompatibility fix for units 0.7-0
- 5y agoconstantsconstants 1.0.0 ⚡
- 8y agoconstantsUnit handling fixes ahead of the 1.0.0 rebuild
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between constants and ss3diags?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. constants and ss3diags 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 ss3diags?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. constants and ss3diags 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 ss3diags?
Top ss3diags alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ss3diags alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ss3diags for the full list with editorial commentary on each.