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Comparison · Infra & APIs
crane vs eratosthenes
A side-by-side editorial comparison of crane and eratosthenes — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
crane vs eratosthenes: at a glance
What is crane?
Crane is turning into the table-and-plot layer for Roche's clinical output stack.
Crane publishes release candidates rather than finals, and the whole of 0.3.2 is carried by a single rc2 body — its two sibling tags are one-line styling commits, one of them tagged with an unsubstituted vX.Y.Z placeholder. The rc2 notes run to dozens of additions across regression tables, line plots and hierarchical rate tables.
What is eratosthenes?
eratosthenes spends 0.1.0 hardening inputs rather than adding chronology methods.
eratosthenes does Bayesian estimation of archaeological chronologies from relative sequences, absolute constraints and artifact assemblages. The 0.0.9 line built out the inference diagnostics — traceplots, histograms, batch-means MCSE reporting, displacement estimation — and then consolidated artifact probability-density estimation into a single gibbs_ad_type(). The 0.1.0 tag turns outward instead, adding validators for every user-supplied structure and replacing seq_check() with a more informative seq_diag().
crane vs eratosthenes: editorial side-by-side
crane
0.0INFRA · APIS
Crane is turning into the table-and-plot layer for Roche's clinical output stack.
◆ Current state
Crane publishes release candidates rather than finals, and the whole of 0.3.2 is carried by a single rc2 body — its two sibling tags are one-line styling commits, one of them tagged with an unsubstituted vX.Y.Z placeholder. The rc2 notes run to dozens of additions across regression tables, line plots and hierarchical rate tables.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is moving from plotting helpers to a full analysis-output layer: mixed models for repeated measures, pairwise Cox results, risk-management-plan tables and adverse-event incidence rates all arrive in one cycle, and the annotation machinery underneath was rebuilt for reliable table-to-axis alignment. Defaults are being pulled toward SAS and rtables output — the log-rank test now uses survival::survdiff instead of coin, and survfit confidence intervals default to plain rather than log.
◆ Prediction
Expect a 0.3.2 final close behind rc2, and the deprecated g_lineplot() family to be removed once gg_lineplot() and annotate_gg() have settled.
eratosthenes
2.5INFRA · APIS
eratosthenes spends 0.1.0 hardening inputs rather than adding chronology methods.
◆ Current state
eratosthenes does Bayesian estimation of archaeological chronologies from relative sequences, absolute constraints and artifact assemblages. The 0.0.9 line built out the inference diagnostics — traceplots, histograms, batch-means MCSE reporting, displacement estimation — and then consolidated artifact probability-density estimation into a single gibbs_ad_type(). The 0.1.0 tag turns outward instead, adding validators for every user-supplied structure and replacing seq_check() with a more informative seq_diag().
◆ Where it's heading
The package is moving from research code to something a non-author can run. Consolidating estimation behind one function, then wrapping every input class in a validator, are the two steps that make failures legible instead of cryptic, and the diagnostics added earlier serve the same end for the sampler itself. Nothing in the window changes the underlying model; the work is all about making it usable and its output checkable.
◆ Prediction
With inputs validated and diagnostics in place, the next release is more likely to extend the constraint or assemblage modelling than to keep reworking the interface, though the feed's three sparse tags give little to read a cadence from.
Alternatives to crane and eratosthenes
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 crane or eratosthenes.
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.
contagionchannels
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
tidyaudit
Pipeline provenance for tidyverse workflows, recording what changed at each step without keeping the data.
See all crane alternatives → · See all eratosthenes alternatives →
Recent activity from crane and eratosthenes
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10d agoeratosthenesInput validators added; seq_check() replaced by seq_diag()
- 2mo agocraneMMRM, Cox and incidence-rate tables land in one release ⚡
- 2mo agocraneExample styling and runtime cleanup
- 2mo agocranePlaceholder release tag from the same styling commit
- 1y agoeratosthenesArtifact p.d.f. estimation consolidated into gibbs_ad_type()
- 1y agoeratosthenesMCMC diagnostics arrive: traceplots, histograms, batch-means MCSE
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between crane and eratosthenes?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. eratosthenes is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is crane better than eratosthenes?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. eratosthenes is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to crane?
Top crane alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "crane alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/crane for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to eratosthenes?
Top eratosthenes alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "eratosthenes alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/eratosthenes for the full list with editorial commentary on each.