qqman
The Manhattan-plot package for GWAS results, finished and dormant since 2017.
Comparison · Analytics
distributional vs tern.mmrm
A side-by-side editorial comparison of distributional and tern.mmrm — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
distributional vs tern.mmrm: at a glance
What is distributional?
distributional taught + and - to work on any pair of distributions, closing the algebra it started with.
The R package providing vectorised distribution objects — the substrate that forecasting and anomaly tooling in the same ecosystem builds on. Cadence has picked up sharply, with four releases in the six months to June 2026 against roughly one a year before that. Two kinds of work alternate: adding distribution families (Dirichlet, Horseshoe, Laplace, multivariate t, g-and-k, the extreme-value pair) and deepening what can be computed generically across all of them.
What is tern.mmrm?
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
tern.mmrm wraps mixed models for repeated measures into the tern tabulation and plotting layer used by teal clinical modules. The visible history ends with three CRAN releases in mid-to-late 2024; before that the feed carries only automated version bumps from 2022, three of which have just been backfilled into the record. The most recent substantive change adds axis limit arguments to the LS-means plot.
distributional vs tern.mmrm: editorial side-by-side
distributional
0.0ANALYTICS
distributional taught + and - to work on any pair of distributions, closing the algebra it started with.
◆ Current state
The R package providing vectorised distribution objects — the substrate that forecasting and anomaly tooling in the same ecosystem builds on. Cadence has picked up sharply, with four releases in the six months to June 2026 against roughly one a year before that. Two kinds of work alternate: adding distribution families (Dirichlet, Horseshoe, Laplace, multivariate t, g-and-k, the extreme-value pair) and deepening what can be computed generically across all of them.
◆ Where it's heading
The generic-computation thread is the one that matters and it has been building steadily: a Monte Carlo default method for cdf(), has_symmetry() to let algorithms specialise, hdr() moving to exact results for symmetric distributions and 4096 quantiles elsewhere, open-versus-closed support intervals. Version 0.8.0 is where that thread arrives somewhere — arithmetic on arbitrary distributions, with closed forms used when they exist and numerical convolution when they do not. The package is positioning itself as a computational layer rather than a catalogue, which is consistent with how weird and the forecasting packages consume it.
◆ Prediction
Expect the numerical machinery behind dist_convolved() to be reused for other operators, and more generics like has_symmetry() that let downstream algorithms take exact paths when a distribution supports them.
tern.mmrm
0.0ANALYTICS
An MMRM tabulation package that has published nothing since its 2024 CRAN releases.
◆ Current state
tern.mmrm wraps mixed models for repeated measures into the tern tabulation and plotting layer used by teal clinical modules. The visible history ends with three CRAN releases in mid-to-late 2024; before that the feed carries only automated version bumps from 2022, three of which have just been backfilled into the record. The most recent substantive change adds axis limit arguments to the LS-means plot.
◆ Where it's heading
Content per release is thin and largely organisational: a maintainer change, replacing scda with random.cdisc.data in vignettes, and adapting to new {mmrm} versions. The package appears to be in maintenance, tracking its upstream dependency rather than developing independently. The 2022 entries now visible are release-automation commits, not releases in any meaningful sense.
◆ Prediction
Nothing here signals new functionality; the realistic next event is another compatibility release when {mmrm} or {rtables} changes underneath it.
Alternatives to distributional and tern.mmrm
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 distributional or tern.mmrm.
constants
The R package for CODATA constants rebuilt its symbol table on NIST's naming so future updates stop being hand work.
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.
See all distributional alternatives → · See all tern.mmrm alternatives →
Recent activity from distributional and tern.mmrm
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agodistributionalConditional S3 registration so the package loads on R before 4.3
- 1mo agodistributionalDistribution arithmetic: FFT convolution behind the + and - operators ⚡
- 2mo agodistributionalVectorised p in quantile() for inflated distributions; open brackets on infinite bounds
- 5mo agodistributionalDirichlet and Horseshoe distributions added
- 7mo agodistributionalhas_symmetry() generic, exact HDRs for symmetric distributions
- 1y agotern.mmrmAxis limits added to the LS-means plot
- 1y agodistributionalMonte Carlo cdf() default method; g-and-k, g-and-h and extreme-value families
- 2y agotern.mmrmMaintainer change and scda replaced in vignettes
- 2y agotern.mmrmCRAN 0.3.0 release, mostly workflow housekeeping
- 3y agotern.mmrmAutomated version bump to 0.2.1
- 3y agotern.mmrmPre-release branch merge
- 4y agotern.mmrmCI automation commit, no release content
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between distributional and tern.mmrm?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. distributional and tern.mmrm 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 distributional better than tern.mmrm?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. distributional and tern.mmrm 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 distributional?
Top distributional alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "distributional alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/distributional-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tern.mmrm?
Top tern.mmrm alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tern.mmrm alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tern-mmrm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.