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Comparison · Analytics
discretefdr vs skylight
A side-by-side editorial comparison of discretefdr and skylight — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
discretefdr vs skylight: at a glance
What is discretefdr?
The discrete-data FDR package is being pared into one piece of a larger multiple-testing suite.
DiscreteFDR implements false discovery rate procedures adapted for discrete test statistics, where the standard continuous-case corrections are conservative. It now covers a discrete Benjamini-Yekutieli procedure alongside the Benjamini-Hochberg variants it started with, including adaptive versions. Its datasets and test-result classes have been moved out into companion packages, so it increasingly does one job and defers the rest.
What is skylight?
A frozen astronomical model quietly became the inner loop of its sibling's optimizer.
skylight returns sun and moon illuminance, azimuth and altitude for a given date, time and location, implemented as a near-verbatim transcription of a 1987 US Naval Observatory circular. The model formulation has not changed since the initial 2022 release and the author states so explicitly. Everything shipped since has been packaging, citation and speed: v1.3 moved the main routine from R to C++, and v1.4 removed a parameter check that was flooding the console with messages.
discretefdr vs skylight: editorial side-by-side
discretefdr
0.0ANALYTICS
The discrete-data FDR package is being pared into one piece of a larger multiple-testing suite.
◆ Current state
DiscreteFDR implements false discovery rate procedures adapted for discrete test statistics, where the standard continuous-case corrections are conservative. It now covers a discrete Benjamini-Yekutieli procedure alongside the Benjamini-Hochberg variants it started with, including adaptive versions. Its datasets and test-result classes have been moved out into companion packages, so it increasingly does one job and defers the rest.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is decomposition into a suite. The amnesia dataset went to DiscreteDatasets, summary output now interoperates with the DiscreteTestResults class from DiscreteTests, and match.pvals() stopped being exported — each release trims something that belongs elsewhere. What remains gets methodological additions at a slow, deliberate cadence, with performance work on the step-up procedures that dominate cost when the number of tests is large. Recent activity is maintenance: replacing deprecated calls the package still made of its own siblings. This is a mature statistical package whose release notes are short because the methods underneath them are settled.
◆ Prediction
Expect further alignment with the companion packages rather than new procedures, since the last substantive release was already about interoperating with DiscreteTests classes and the most recent one about clearing deprecations.
skylight
0.0ANALYTICS
A frozen astronomical model quietly became the inner loop of its sibling's optimizer.
◆ Current state
skylight returns sun and moon illuminance, azimuth and altitude for a given date, time and location, implemented as a near-verbatim transcription of a 1987 US Naval Observatory circular. The model formulation has not changed since the initial 2022 release and the author states so explicitly. Everything shipped since has been packaging, citation and speed: v1.3 moved the main routine from R to C++, and v1.4 removed a parameter check that was flooding the console with messages.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a reference implementation of a published algorithm rather than a product accumulating features, and it is being maintained that way. The movement that does occur is driven from downstream: the C++ port was written for the inverse-modelling loop in the sibling skytrackr package, which calls skylight repeatedly during optimization. That reframes skylight from a standalone calculator into the compute kernel another package's fitting routine depends on.
◆ Prediction
With the model formulation deliberately fixed and the C++ path already in place, the next release is most likely another small maintenance fix. The entries give no indication of planned new capability.
Alternatives to discretefdr and skylight
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 discretefdr or skylight.
cfbfastr
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
rnpn
The USA phenology data client rebuilt its entire stack and stopped handing users -9999 as a number.
GeneNMF
GeneNMF rebuilt how it derives meta-programs, changing every result it had produced.
rempsyc
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
sdsfun
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
See all discretefdr alternatives → · See all skylight alternatives →
Recent activity from discretefdr and skylight
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agodiscretefdrDeprecated internal calls replaced
- 9mo agoskylightNoisy parameter check removed from console output
- 10mo agoskylightCore routine moves from R to C++ for repeated-call speed
- 1y agodiscretefdrDiscrete Benjamini-Yekutieli procedure added
- 1y agodiscretefdrDatasets split out and step-up procedures sped up
- 2y agoskylightCitation updated after the companion paper published
- 3y agoskylightSkylight v1.1
- 3y agoskylightFirst release: sun and moon illuminance from the 1987 USNO circular
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between discretefdr and skylight?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. discretefdr and skylight 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 discretefdr better than skylight?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. discretefdr and skylight 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 discretefdr?
Top discretefdr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "discretefdr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/discretefdr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to skylight?
Top skylight alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "skylight alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/skylight for the full list with editorial commentary on each.