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Comparison · Analytics
epiworldR vs NWCTrends
A side-by-side editorial comparison of epiworldR and NWCTrends — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
epiworldR vs NWCTrends: at a glance
What is epiworldR?
epiworldR is a thin R shell whose releases track the C++ simulator underneath it
Almost every release here is a version bump of the underlying epiworld C++ library, wrapped and pushed to CRAN. The substantive R-side work is narrow and consistent: exposing simulation outputs that were already computed but not reachable from R — outbreak size, active cases, hospitalizations and their savers. The newest release addresses an AddressSanitizer finding, which is the kind of thing CRAN checks surface on a compiled package.
What is NWCTrends?
The salmon status-review trend package, maintained one federal review cycle at a time
NWCTrends fits multivariate state-space trend models to Pacific salmon population data and generates the tables and figures used in NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center viability and status reviews. Its release history maps onto those review cycles rather than a development calendar: v1.0 carries the 2015 review code, v1.25 the 2020 review, v1.30 the changes since. The 2026 v1.31 is internal restructuring and a dependency swap.
epiworldR vs NWCTrends: editorial side-by-side
epiworldR
0.0ANALYTICS
epiworldR is a thin R shell whose releases track the C++ simulator underneath it
◆ Current state
Almost every release here is a version bump of the underlying epiworld C++ library, wrapped and pushed to CRAN. The substantive R-side work is narrow and consistent: exposing simulation outputs that were already computed but not reachable from R — outbreak size, active cases, hospitalizations and their savers. The newest release addresses an AddressSanitizer finding, which is the kind of thing CRAN checks surface on a compiled package.
◆ Where it's heading
The R package's job is staying current with the simulator and satisfying CRAN, not evolving its own interface. What direction it has shows in which model outputs get exposed next, and in a steady tidy-up of the build — the custom configure script was dropped in favour of R's built-in C++17 and OpenMP settings, and test coverage has been filled in across several releases with automated assistance.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to track another epiworld version bump, with any R-side addition most likely being one more exposed metric or saver, following the pattern of get_hospitalizations and get_outbreak_size.
NWCTrends
0.0ANALYTICS
The salmon status-review trend package, maintained one federal review cycle at a time
◆ Current state
NWCTrends fits multivariate state-space trend models to Pacific salmon population data and generates the tables and figures used in NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center viability and status reviews. Its release history maps onto those review cycles rather than a development calendar: v1.0 carries the 2015 review code, v1.25 the 2020 review, v1.30 the changes since. The 2026 v1.31 is internal restructuring and a dependency swap.
◆ Where it's heading
Development is driven by reproducibility of a specific government reporting product, so most work goes into making the report generation configurable and the fitting assumptions explicit rather than into new modelling. The 2020 cycle removed hard-coded per-population hacks and made the fitting window an explicit argument; the 2023 cycle moved plot styling into package options and clarified how missing data and zeros are handled in the published tables.
◆ Prediction
The cadence suggests the next substantive release arrives with the next status review rather than before it, most likely continuing the move of report parameters out of function signatures and into structured configuration.
Alternatives to epiworldR and NWCTrends
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 epiworldR or NWCTrends.
epikit
epikit narrows to field-epidemiology helpers, handing proportions to a sibling package
SimInf
SimInf 10.0 turns an epidemic simulator into a tool that fits models to real time series
mutagen
A young package porting Stata's egen row-wise helpers to the tidyverse, one function per release
broman
A statistician's personal toolbox, growing one plotting utility at a time
qtl
R/qtl is in pure custodial mode: every recent release answers a compiler, not a user
See all epiworldR alternatives → · See all NWCTrends alternatives →
Recent activity from epiworldR and NWCTrends
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agoepiworldR0.14.0 addresses an AddressSanitizer finding
- 5mo agoepiworldRWrapper bumped to track a new epiworld version
- 5mo agoepiworldRBuild drops the custom configure script for R's C++17 and OpenMP settings
- 6mo agoepiworldRepiworld bumped to 0.11.2
- 7mo agoepiworldRTests updated at CRAN's request
- 7mo agoNWCTrendsReport params extracted to a list; gdata replaced with readxl
- 7mo agoepiworldRHospitalizations, outbreak size and active cases exposed to R
- 3y agoNWCTrendsPlot options move into package globals; figure data exported to CSV
- 5y agoNWCTrendsExplicit fitting window replaces implicit full-data fits
- 5y agoNWCTrendsInitial release packaging the 2015 status review code
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between epiworldR and NWCTrends?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. epiworldR and NWCTrends 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 epiworldR better than NWCTrends?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. epiworldR and NWCTrends 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 epiworldR?
Top epiworldR alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "epiworldR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/epiworldr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to NWCTrends?
Top NWCTrends alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "NWCTrends alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nwctrends-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.