simlandr
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Comparison · Analytics
eiaapi vs qtl2fst
A side-by-side editorial comparison of eiaapi and qtl2fst — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
eiaapi vs qtl2fst: at a glance
What is eiaapi?
A thin EIA energy-data client whose whole story is making bulk queries survive the API's limits.
eiaapi wraps the US Energy Information Administration API: eia_get() issues a single query, and eia_backfill() decomposes a large date range into chunks the API will actually serve. Three releases across two years cover the package's entire history, and the second and third both exist because of eia_backfill().
What is qtl2fst?
The out-of-memory backend for R/qtl2, feature-complete since 2020 and now purely on upkeep
qtl2fst backs R/qtl2 genotype probabilities with on-disk fst files so large crosses don't have to fit in RAM. Its defining release was 0.22 in 2020, which added calc_genoprob_fst() and genoprob_to_alleleprob_fst() to fuse calculation and storage in one step. The five releases since are documentation links, directory-creation robustness, a Windows example fix, and — in 0.32 — a change to how cores=0 is interpreted.
eiaapi vs qtl2fst: editorial side-by-side
eiaapi
0.0ANALYTICS
A thin EIA energy-data client whose whole story is making bulk queries survive the API's limits.
◆ Current state
eiaapi wraps the US Energy Information Administration API: eia_get() issues a single query, and eia_backfill() decomposes a large date range into chunks the API will actually serve. Three releases across two years cover the package's entire history, and the second and third both exist because of eia_backfill().
◆ Where it's heading
The package's development is a single problem being worked: pulling more data than one request allows. Version 0.1.2 introduced eia_backfill() for exactly that, and 0.2.0 fixed it for non-hourly frequencies by adding the frequency and data arguments so it matches eia_get()'s interface and by reworking Date handling. That convergence of the two functions' signatures is the visible design direction — one query idiom regardless of range size.
◆ Prediction
With the two functions now taking aligned arguments, further work most plausibly extends coverage to more EIA endpoints or response shapes. The entries name no specific target.
qtl2fst
0.0ANALYTICS
The out-of-memory backend for R/qtl2, feature-complete since 2020 and now purely on upkeep
◆ Current state
qtl2fst backs R/qtl2 genotype probabilities with on-disk fst files so large crosses don't have to fit in RAM. Its defining release was 0.22 in 2020, which added calc_genoprob_fst() and genoprob_to_alleleprob_fst() to fuse calculation and storage in one step. The five releases since are documentation links, directory-creation robustness, a Windows example fix, and — in 0.32 — a change to how cores=0 is interpreted.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has settled into the role of a stable satellite of R/qtl2: it tracks the parent package's conventions rather than setting its own. The cores=0 change in 0.32 arrived alongside the identical change in qtl2convert, so the parallel-computing default is being standardized across the maintainer's packages at once. Release intervals have stretched from months to years.
◆ Prediction
Further releases will most likely mirror changes originating in R/qtl2 or CRAN checks, in the same follow-the-parent pattern as 0.24 and 0.32.
Alternatives to eiaapi and qtl2fst
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 eiaapi or qtl2fst.
lavaanExtra
SEM reporting helpers converging on APA output, one CRAN resubmission at a time.
ibis.iSDM
A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
anyflights
A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
vinereg
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
stringx
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
See all eiaapi alternatives → · See all qtl2fst alternatives →
Recent activity from eiaapi and qtl2fst
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoqtl2fstcores=0 now leaves one core free instead of taking all
- 1y agoeiaapieia_backfill() works for non-hourly frequencies
- 1y agoqtl2fstWindows fix for the replace_path() example
- 2y agoqtl2fstDocumentation link fix
- 3y agoeiaapieia_backfill() added for large data queries
- 3y agoeiaapiInitial release with eia_get() API query function
- 4y agoqtl2fstCreates missing directories instead of erroring out
- 5y agoqtl2fstTest coverage for qtl2 functions against fst-backed probabilities
- 6y agoqtl2fstDocumentation and metadata cleanup for CRAN
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between eiaapi and qtl2fst?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. eiaapi and qtl2fst 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 eiaapi better than qtl2fst?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. eiaapi and qtl2fst 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 eiaapi?
Top eiaapi alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "eiaapi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/eiaapi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to qtl2fst?
Top qtl2fst alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qtl2fst alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qtl2fst for the full list with editorial commentary on each.