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Comparison · Infra & APIs
contagionchannels vs jstable
A side-by-side editorial comparison of contagionchannels and jstable — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
contagionchannels vs jstable: at a glance
What is contagionchannels?
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
contagionchannels reached CRAN on 2026-05-08 with a methodology preprint behind it and a cross-quantilogram lineage visible in its citations. What the release feed does not contain is any description of what the package computes: all three entries document the submission process — a licence field reduced from GPL-3 plus file to plain GPL-3, an arXiv reference rewritten in canonical DOI form, and a base-graphics fallback adjusted on a reviewer's request.
What is jstable?
A clinical table generator paying down years of edge cases in survey-weighted models
jstable turns regression and survival models into the formatted tables medical papers publish, wrapping coxph, glm, geeglm, lmer and their survey-weighted counterparts. The recent line is almost entirely correction work, concentrated in two places: the .display family and the TableSubgroup family. Version 1.3.25 alone fixed quasibinomial support for survey-weighted logistic regression, automatic factor-to-numeric outcome conversion for svyglm, weighted-versus-original sample counts in the n row, data.table input handling, and Overall column labelling.
contagionchannels vs jstable: editorial side-by-side
contagionchannels
0.0INFRA · APIS
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
◆ Current state
contagionchannels reached CRAN on 2026-05-08 with a methodology preprint behind it and a cross-quantilogram lineage visible in its citations. What the release feed does not contain is any description of what the package computes: all three entries document the submission process — a licence field reduced from GPL-3 plus file to plain GPL-3, an arXiv reference rewritten in canonical DOI form, and a base-graphics fallback adjusted on a reviewer's request.
◆ Where it's heading
There is no product trajectory to read here yet, only a submission one, and it is unusually well documented — each entry names the reviewer or check that prompted it and quotes the feedback verbatim. That transparency is the one signal available: the maintainer treats review rounds as releases worth publishing rather than squashing. Any judgement about direction will have to wait for a release that changes the package rather than its metadata.
◆ Prediction
With CRAN acceptance secured, the next release should be the first to carry actual methodological content; until one appears, there is not enough in these entries to say where the package is heading.
jstable
0.0INFRA · APIS
A clinical table generator paying down years of edge cases in survey-weighted models
◆ Current state
jstable turns regression and survival models into the formatted tables medical papers publish, wrapping coxph, glm, geeglm, lmer and their survey-weighted counterparts. The recent line is almost entirely correction work, concentrated in two places: the .display family and the TableSubgroup family. Version 1.3.25 alone fixed quasibinomial support for survey-weighted logistic regression, automatic factor-to-numeric outcome conversion for svyglm, weighted-versus-original sample counts in the n row, data.table input handling, and Overall column labelling.
◆ Where it's heading
Each CRAN release bundles several GitHub patch versions, so the notes read as rolled-up fix lists rather than feature announcements. The substantive thread is pcut.univariate, introduced across seven display functions in 1.3.11 to allow multivariable analysis restricted to significant variables, and repaired repeatedly since as it collided with interaction terms, single-variable selections, clustered models and data.table inputs. The survey-weighted path is the other recurring source: counts, labels and family handling that worked for unweighted data kept failing once weights were involved.
◆ Prediction
Expect further patches in the survey-weighted subgroup functions, since 1.3.25 fixed four separate issues there and each recent release has surfaced more in the same area.
Alternatives to contagionchannels and jstable
Other Infra & APIs 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 contagionchannels or jstable.
WPML
WPML made machine translation the default, and its point releases keep chasing WordPress and page builders.
forestploter
A forest plot package that keeps handing users control of one more graphical detail.
ggInterval
Interval-valued data plotting, spending 2026 making its function names and examples survive CRAN.
rgm
A microbiome network model that got itself un-archived by deleting the dependency that killed it.
tidyaudit
Pipeline provenance for tidyverse workflows, recording what changed at each step without keeping the data.
See all contagionchannels alternatives → · See all jstable alternatives →
Recent activity from contagionchannels and jstable
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agocontagionchannelsv0.1.3 — first CRAN release
- 3mo agocontagionchannelsv0.1.2: switch arXiv reference in DESCRIPTION to canonical DOI form
- 3mo agocontagionchannelsv0.1.1: address CRAN reviewer feedback (License) + add arXiv reference
- 4mo agojstableSurvey-weighted logistic regression and sample counts corrected
- 6mo agojstableCompeting-risk counts drawn from original rather than transformed data
- 9mo agojstableMulti-state Cox models detected without a manual flag
- 10mo agojstableWide fix pass across the display functions
- 1y agojstableCrude p-values computed from raw data via data_for_univariate
- 1y agojstableSignificance-filtered multivariable analysis added across seven functions
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between contagionchannels and jstable?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. contagionchannels and jstable 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 contagionchannels better than jstable?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. contagionchannels and jstable 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to contagionchannels?
Top contagionchannels alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "contagionchannels alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/contagionchannels for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to jstable?
Top jstable alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "jstable alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/jstable for the full list with editorial commentary on each.