Zoho Creator
Three months on, Zoho is still selling the HDS certification rather than shipping past it.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
exametrika vs selection.index
A side-by-side editorial comparison of exametrika and selection.index — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
exametrika vs selection.index: at a glance
What is exametrika?
exametrika breaks its own numbers to fix them, and ships the fit statistic nominal data lacked.
exametrika is an R psychometrics package covering IRT, latent class and rank analysis, and biclustering. Version 2.0.0 is a deliberate break: an EM convergence defect inherited from the reference implementation stopped estimation after as little as one cycle while reporting convergence, so every EM-based model in the package now returns different estimates than it did before. The package no longer reproduces the numbers printed in Shojima (2022), and the maintainer says so directly rather than burying it. The deprecation removals promised since 1.15.0 ride along in the same release, and the package title changed to Test Data Engineering.
What is selection.index?
A dormant plant-breeding package returns as a genomic selection index suite
selection.index computes selection indices for plant breeding — weighting several traits into one number breeders can rank on. After two years of silence it shipped 2.0.0 in March 2026, and the package is barely recognisable: snake_case throughout, an Rcpp and RcppEigen computational core, and index families for genomic data, marker data, multi-stage trials and constrained genetic gain sitting beside the original phenotypic ones.
exametrika vs selection.index: editorial side-by-side
exametrika
3.8INFRA · APIS
exametrika breaks its own numbers to fix them, and ships the fit statistic nominal data lacked.
◆ Current state
exametrika is an R psychometrics package covering IRT, latent class and rank analysis, and biclustering. Version 2.0.0 is a deliberate break: an EM convergence defect inherited from the reference implementation stopped estimation after as little as one cycle while reporting convergence, so every EM-based model in the package now returns different estimates than it did before. The package no longer reproduces the numbers printed in Shojima (2022), and the maintainer says so directly rather than burying it. The deprecation removals promised since 1.15.0 ride along in the same release, and the package title changed to Test Data Engineering.
◆ Where it's heading
The consolidation arc that ran through 1.14.0 and 1.15.0 has closed, but not the way the audit trail suggested it would. Rather than pausing new modelling work through the cleanup, 2.0.0 pairs the breaking removals with real capability: M2() and add_M2() bring a limited-information fit statistic with a full margin-based index set, order-restricted estimation becomes the default for Ranklustering on the strength of a higher likelihood, and LCA() picks up nominal and rated data. The correctness fixes share one shape - defects that got worse as data got larger, where a 700-respondent dataset silently merged fields and a 40-item test returned no assignments at all. A two-tier test suite now keeps 3,507 tests in CI while CRAN sees a 17-second subset.
◆ Prediction
With the deprecation backlog cleared and the EM core rewritten, the next releases have room to build on M2() - most plausibly extending the margin-based indices to the models that do not yet report them. Whether the R Journal submission that shaped 1.13.1 and 1.14.0 has landed is not visible in these entries.
selection.index
0.0INFRA · APIS
A dormant plant-breeding package returns as a genomic selection index suite
◆ Current state
selection.index computes selection indices for plant breeding — weighting several traits into one number breeders can rank on. After two years of silence it shipped 2.0.0 in March 2026, and the package is barely recognisable: snake_case throughout, an Rcpp and RcppEigen computational core, and index families for genomic data, marker data, multi-stage trials and constrained genetic gain sitting beside the original phenotypic ones.
◆ Where it's heading
The first version series added one function at a time — combinatorial indices, then genetic advance, then mean performance under randomised block designs — against a fixed phenotypic framing. Version 2.0.0 abandons that framing rather than extending it. Genomic and marker information become inputs the package understands, multi-cycle simulation becomes a built-in toolset, and the old combinatorial entry points are replaced by a named lpsi(). The 2.0.1 follow-up is entirely CI and numerical-stability work, which reads like a maintainer bracing a much larger surface.
◆ Prediction
A seventeen-runner CI matrix mirroring every CRAN check flavour, added days after 2.0.0, says the immediate concern is keeping a compiled multi-family package green rather than adding to it. Expect stabilisation releases before anything new.
Alternatives to exametrika and selection.index
Other Infra & APIs 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 exametrika or selection.index.
Retool
Retool now debugs the apps its agent builds, and versions them across instances.
nuggets
A pattern-mining package that keeps making its own search cheaper rather than wider.
Traefik
Traefik's 2.11 line spends August fixing the names it generates for Kubernetes resources.
NGINX
nginx returns to feature work with PROXY v2 upstream writes, and quietly adds JSON to core.
ESPHome
ESPHome closes the 2026.8 cycle, but the release body is a bare link to the real notes.
See all exametrika alternatives → · See all selection.index alternatives →
Recent activity from exametrika and selection.index
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoexametrikaEM convergence fix changes every estimate; deprecated names removed ⚡
- 1mo agoexametrikaFull-codebase audit fixes silent result corruption, unifies arguments
- 2mo agoexametrikaPlot methods finally forward the graphical parameters they documented
- 3mo agoexametrikaCRAN resubmission: slow tests skipped to fit the check budget
- 3mo agoexametrikaGraphical Lasso and Chatterjee's xi extend the package into network estimation ⚡
- 3mo agoexametrikaFrozen research baseline, never released to CRAN
- 5mo agoselection.indexCI expanded to 17 runners after the 2.0.0 rewrite
- 5mo agoselection.indexGenomic, marker and multi-stage selection indices on an Rcpp core ⚡
- 6mo agoselection.indexUnspecified general performance improvements
- 2y agoselection.indexMean performance for randomised block designs
- 3y agoselection.indexsel.index() and sel.score.rank() removed for comb.indices()
- 4y agoselection.indexGenetic advance calculation added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between exametrika and selection.index?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. exametrika 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 exametrika better than selection.index?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. exametrika 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to exametrika?
Top exametrika alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "exametrika alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/exametrika for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to selection.index?
Top selection.index alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "selection.index alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/selection-index for the full list with editorial commentary on each.