n2kanalysis
n2kanalysis has spent eight years wiring INLA models to an S3 bucket.
Comparison · Analytics
filearray vs OHPL
A side-by-side editorial comparison of filearray and OHPL — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
filearray vs OHPL: at a glance
What is filearray?
The on-disk array layer under RAVE spends its releases hunting segfaults.
filearray stores large arrays on disk and reads them back with little memory overhead, serving as the storage substrate for the RAVE intracranial EEG stack. The 0.2.2 release fixes out-of-bound indexing that caused segfaults along certain margins and an ASAN-flagged signed integer overflow in the load path. The user-facing API has been stable since 0.1.6.
What is OHPL?
A 2017 chemometrics method frozen in place, visited only when CRAN changes its documentation rules.
OHPL implements ordered homogeneity pursuit lasso, a variable selection method for high-dimensional spectroscopic data that groups correlated predictors before applying a lasso. The functional package was complete by 1.2 in 2017, when prediction, performance evaluation and simulated data generation functions were added. Every release since has touched documentation and packaging only.
filearray vs OHPL: editorial side-by-side
filearray
0.0ANALYTICS
The on-disk array layer under RAVE spends its releases hunting segfaults.
◆ Current state
filearray stores large arrays on disk and reads them back with little memory overhead, serving as the storage substrate for the RAVE intracranial EEG stack. The 0.2.2 release fixes out-of-bound indexing that caused segfaults along certain margins and an ASAN-flagged signed integer overflow in the load path. The user-facing API has been stable since 0.1.6.
◆ Where it's heading
This is infrastructure whose release history reads as a memory-safety log: unprotected C++ variables, buffer sizes exceeding array length, allocations one byte short, endianness on big-endian platforms, and now out-of-bound margins caught by sanitizers. The one sustained feature direction is reducing the cost of operating on arrays too large for memory — lazy operator evaluation through a proxy class, fmap-style application, and marginal collapse. Portability work has steadily removed hard requirements, dropping the C++11 declaration and swapping OpenMP for TinyThreads to get parallelism on macOS.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued sanitizer-driven patches rather than new interfaces; the three-year gap before 0.2.2 suggests releases now arrive only when a crash or a CRAN check demands one.
OHPL
0.0ANALYTICS
A 2017 chemometrics method frozen in place, visited only when CRAN changes its documentation rules.
◆ Current state
OHPL implements ordered homogeneity pursuit lasso, a variable selection method for high-dimensional spectroscopic data that groups correlated predictors before applying a lasso. The functional package was complete by 1.2 in 2017, when prediction, performance evaluation and simulated data generation functions were added. Every release since has touched documentation and packaging only.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a published-method package in the archival phase: the algorithm is fixed, the paper is cited, and the maintainer keeps it installable. The releases read as a timeline of R packaging conventions rather than of the method — tidyverse code style in 2019, roxygen2 Markdown and bibentry() in 2024, Rd HTML validation in 2026. Gaps of two to five years between releases are normal here.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release whenever CRAN introduces another documentation or packaging check; there is no indication the method itself will be extended.
Alternatives to filearray and OHPL
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 filearray or OHPL.
n1qn1c
A Fortran-descended optimizer got thread-safe, then found two flags that never worked.
ggstatsplot
ggstatsplot reached 1.0 by adding tests, having outsourced its statistics years ago.
collapse
collapse got a JSS paper and a 7x fmean speedup in the same release.
gtsummary
gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.
broadcast
broadcast is filling in NumPy-style array broadcasting for R, operator by operator.
See all filearray alternatives → · See all OHPL alternatives →
Recent activity from filearray and OHPL
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agofilearraySegfault on out-of-bound margins fixed
- 4mo agoOHPLRd documentation HTML validation fixed
- 2y agoOHPLDocumentation modernized to current R conventions
- 3y agofilearrayLazy operator evaluation and macOS parallelism
- 3y agofilearraySequential read bug in fmap corrected
- 4y agofilearrayPartition limit removed by opening files on demand
- 4y agofilearrayHeader signatures and symbolic link detection
- 4y agofilearrayFlush timing left to the operating system
- 7y agoOHPLCode restyled and repository links updated
- 9y agoOHPLCitation information and documentation site updated
- 9y agoOHPLPrediction and evaluation functions complete the package
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between filearray and OHPL?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. filearray and OHPL 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 filearray better than OHPL?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. filearray and OHPL 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 filearray?
Top filearray alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "filearray alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/filearray-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to OHPL?
Top OHPL alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "OHPL alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ohpl for the full list with editorial commentary on each.