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Comparison · Infra & APIs
fastpos vs logbin
A side-by-side editorial comparison of fastpos and logbin — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
fastpos vs logbin: at a glance
What is fastpos?
Dormant three years, then a two-line release nobody using it would notice
fastpos finds the critical point of stability for a Pearson correlation, a simulation problem whose C++ implementation is the entire reason the package exists. Its substantive work concluded in 2022 with 0.5.0, the release prepared during R Journal review, which renamed the precision parameters, moved multicore work to pbapply and let users set corridor limits directly. After three years of silence, 0.6.0 removes an internal restriction to cpp11 and changes index_pop to an integer.
What is logbin?
Relative-risk regression that converges where glm fails, under an unreadable tag order
logbin fits log-binomial models to estimate relative risk, a fit standard glm frequently fails to converge on because of the constrained parameter space. Its answer is a choice of algorithms — adaptive barrier, combinatorial EM, and expectation-maximisation on an overparameterised model — selected through a method argument and optionally accelerated with turboEM. The most recent release, in April 2025, replaces the variance-covariance calculation in summary.logbin so it matches summary.glm, and adds a testthat suite.
fastpos vs logbin: editorial side-by-side
fastpos
0.0INFRA · APIS
Dormant three years, then a two-line release nobody using it would notice
◆ Current state
fastpos finds the critical point of stability for a Pearson correlation, a simulation problem whose C++ implementation is the entire reason the package exists. Its substantive work concluded in 2022 with 0.5.0, the release prepared during R Journal review, which renamed the precision parameters, moved multicore work to pbapply and let users set corridor limits directly. After three years of silence, 0.6.0 removes an internal restriction to cpp11 and changes index_pop to an integer.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a finished piece of research software in low-effort upkeep. The changelog's centre of gravity is the R Journal review process, and once that concluded the package stopped changing. The single release since is toolchain work of the kind that keeps a package compiling rather than anything a user would see.
◆ Prediction
Expect nothing beyond occasional compilation or CRAN-check fixes unless the accompanying paper draws requests for other correlation types or resampling schemes.
logbin
0.0INFRA · APIS
Relative-risk regression that converges where glm fails, under an unreadable tag order
◆ Current state
logbin fits log-binomial models to estimate relative risk, a fit standard glm frequently fails to converge on because of the constrained parameter space. Its answer is a choice of algorithms — adaptive barrier, combinatorial EM, and expectation-maximisation on an overparameterised model — selected through a method argument and optionally accelerated with turboEM. The most recent release, in April 2025, replaces the variance-covariance calculation in summary.logbin so it matches summary.glm, and adds a testthat suite.
◆ Where it's heading
The method work concluded in 2021 and the package has since been aligned with base R conventions rather than extended: the vcov calculation now mirrors glm's, and earlier releases added the contrasts, qr, R and effects components so standard glm S3 methods such as influence() and plot() work on logbin objects. Be warned that the feed's tag order is unusable — versions 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2 and 2.0.4 were all pushed within ninety seconds on 23 July 2021 in non-monotonic order, while 2.0.3 carries a 2017 timestamp and restates 2.0.2's notes. Read the bodies, not the sequence.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued alignment with glm conventions and occasional CRAN maintenance; the algorithm set has been stable for four years and nothing in these entries suggests another is planned.
Alternatives to fastpos and logbin
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 fastpos or logbin.
Cursor
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incident.io
Nexus does the diagnosis; the agent is now reaching into the status page too.
Warp
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Okta
Okta's developer blog is a Cross App Access campaign, now diluted by advocacy-team storytelling.
tealeaves
A leaf-temperature model that finished its job in 2020 and has stayed finished
See all fastpos alternatives → · See all logbin alternatives →
Recent activity from fastpos and logbin
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10mo agofastposcpp11 restriction removed; index_pop now an integer
- 1y agologbinvcov in summary.logbin now matches summary.glm
- 4y agofastposMulticore fix for pbmcapply; Windows limited to one core
- 4y agofastposR Journal review release: renamed precision parameters, manual corridor limits
- 5y agologbinFactor reparameterisation fix and faster parameter expansion
- 5y agologbinVersion bump to satisfy a CRAN check
- 5y agologbinmethod and accelerate options: adaptive barrier, CEM, EM, turboEM
- 5y agologbinglm S3 method support via contrasts, qr, R and effects components
- 5y agologbinJournal of Statistical Software citation added
- 5y agofastposMore informative test failures; interactive-only progress bars
- 6y agofastposMulticore support via the future package
- 6y agofastposExact-rho population generation and C++ progress bar fixes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between fastpos and logbin?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. fastpos and logbin 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 fastpos better than logbin?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. fastpos and logbin 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to fastpos?
Top fastpos alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fastpos alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fastpos for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to logbin?
Top logbin alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "logbin alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/logbin for the full list with editorial commentary on each.