tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
dendroNetwork vs gsDesign2
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dendroNetwork and gsDesign2 — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dendroNetwork vs gsDesign2: at a glance
What is dendroNetwork?
Six releases, six identical bodies — the feed carries the package abstract instead of release notes
dendroNetwork builds networks of dendrochronological series from similarity between tree-ring measurements, applies community detection to find matching material, and hands the result to Cytoscape for visualisation. That description is all the feed provides: every one of the six visible releases carries the same package abstract as its body, with no record of what changed in any of them. Version 0.5.5 in July 2025 is the most recent.
What is gsDesign2?
Group sequential design tooling that now monitors for harm, not just efficacy and futility.
gsDesign2 is the Merck-authored R package for group sequential clinical trial design under non-proportional hazards, and it has spent the last two years filling in the statistical surface its predecessor gsDesign established. Recent releases added conditional power (gs_cp, gs_cp_npe), sequential p-values, risk-difference designs with minimal risk weighting, and boundary updates from blinded interim estimates. Version 1.2.0 adds harm boundaries across the AHR and NPE design and power functions, wired through every summary and table export path.
dendroNetwork vs gsDesign2: editorial side-by-side
dendroNetwork
0.0ANALYTICS
Six releases, six identical bodies — the feed carries the package abstract instead of release notes
◆ Current state
dendroNetwork builds networks of dendrochronological series from similarity between tree-ring measurements, applies community detection to find matching material, and hands the result to Cytoscape for visualisation. That description is all the feed provides: every one of the six visible releases carries the same package abstract as its body, with no record of what changed in any of them. Version 0.5.5 in July 2025 is the most recent.
◆ Where it's heading
What the timestamps show is more informative than the text. Versions 0.5.0 through 0.5.3 were all published within two minutes of each other on 12 April 2024, and in descending version order, which is the signature of a release history backfilled in one pass rather than four separate releases. Real releases follow at 0.5.4 a fortnight later and 0.5.5 fifteen months after that. Development is slow and, on this evidence, undocumented.
◆ Prediction
No prediction is supportable from these entries — none of them describe a change. Any read on where this package is heading would need the NEWS file or the commit history rather than the feed.
gsDesign2
3.8ANALYTICS
Group sequential design tooling that now monitors for harm, not just efficacy and futility.
◆ Current state
gsDesign2 is the Merck-authored R package for group sequential clinical trial design under non-proportional hazards, and it has spent the last two years filling in the statistical surface its predecessor gsDesign established. Recent releases added conditional power (gs_cp, gs_cp_npe), sequential p-values, risk-difference designs with minimal risk weighting, and boundary updates from blinded interim estimates. Version 1.2.0 adds harm boundaries across the AHR and NPE design and power functions, wired through every summary and table export path.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is converging on parity with gsDesign while extending past it — each release either closes a gap against the older package or adds a boundary type gsDesign never had. A visible second track is output plumbing: every new statistical feature now arrives already threaded through summary(), gs_bound_summary(), as_gt(), and as_rtf(), which is what regulatory submission work actually consumes. Performance work is steady but secondary, with gs_design_ahr() roughly 2x faster in 1.1.9.
◆ Prediction
Expect the harm boundary work to propagate into the WLR and risk-difference design families, which are the two design branches 1.2.0 left untouched, along with a vignette bridging harm boundaries to the remaining gsDesign test types.
Alternatives to dendroNetwork and gsDesign2
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 dendroNetwork or gsDesign2.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
See all dendroNetwork alternatives → · See all gsDesign2 alternatives →
Recent activity from dendroNetwork and gsDesign2
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 9d agogsDesign2Harm boundaries land in AHR and NPE group sequential designs ⚡
- 1mo agogsDesign2Conditional power, sequential p-values, and minimal risk weighting
- 5mo agogsDesign2gs_design_ahr() can output spending time
- 8mo agogsDesign2S3 class refactor and futility boundary vignette
- 11mo agogsDesign2h1_spending for WLR power, info_scale across fixed designs
- 1y agodendroNetworkdendroNetwork 0.5.5
- 1y agogsDesign2WLR design spending default corrected to information fraction
- 2y agodendroNetworkdendroNetwork 0.5.4
- 2y agodendroNetworkdendroNetwork 0.5.0
- 2y agodendroNetworkdendroNetwork 0.5.1
- 2y agodendroNetworkdendroNetwork 0.5.2
- 2y agodendroNetworkdendroNetwork 0.5.3
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dendroNetwork and gsDesign2?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. gsDesign2 is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 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 dendroNetwork better than gsDesign2?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gsDesign2 is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 3.8 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to dendroNetwork?
Top dendroNetwork alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dendroNetwork alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dendronetwork for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to gsDesign2?
Top gsDesign2 alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gsDesign2 alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gsdesign2 for the full list with editorial commentary on each.