cIRT
A choice-based IRT model published once in 2019 and kept compiling ever since
Comparison · Analytics
fmtr vs momentuHMM
A side-by-side editorial comparison of fmtr and momentuHMM — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
fmtr vs momentuHMM: at a glance
What is fmtr?
Rebuilding SAS's formatting layer in R, one format specification at a time
fmtr applies formats to R data the way SAS applies them: named format catalogues, format lists, and an fapply() that maps a specification onto a vector. It is part of a family of packages that reconstruct SAS reporting idioms in R, and it shares infrastructure with them — labels.data.frame() was moved out to the common package, which fmtr now depends on. The recent releases have been closing specific gaps against SAS's own format vocabulary.
What is momentuHMM?
The animal-movement HMM workhorse, feature-frozen since 2021 and coasting on compiler patches
momentuHMM fits hidden Markov models to animal telemetry — multiple data streams, measurement error, temporally irregular tracks, hierarchical and mixture structures. It is one of the reference implementations in movement ecology and is cited as such. Its capability set has been essentially fixed since 2021; the last four years of releases are compiler, dependency and CRAN metadata work.
fmtr vs momentuHMM: editorial side-by-side
fmtr
0.0ANALYTICS
Rebuilding SAS's formatting layer in R, one format specification at a time
◆ Current state
fmtr applies formats to R data the way SAS applies them: named format catalogues, format lists, and an fapply() that maps a specification onto a vector. It is part of a family of packages that reconstruct SAS reporting idioms in R, and it shares infrastructure with them — labels.data.frame() was moved out to the common package, which fmtr now depends on. The recent releases have been closing specific gaps against SAS's own format vocabulary.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is parity, pursued in small increments. Quarter format codes were added because base R has none; the SAS best. format was reimplemented, then hardened against the variations people actually write; statistical summary helpers like fmt_mean_sd() and fmt_mean_stderr() cover the cell contents clinical tables need. The structural work is largely behind it, including the breaking 2022 move that handed labelling to a sibling package, so what remains is vocabulary coverage.
◆ Prediction
The pattern of adding a SAS format, then a release to handle its variants, suggests the next releases continue filling in format codes and summary helpers rather than changing how formats are applied.
momentuHMM
0.0ANALYTICS
The animal-movement HMM workhorse, feature-frozen since 2021 and coasting on compiler patches
◆ Current state
momentuHMM fits hidden Markov models to animal telemetry — multiple data streams, measurement error, temporally irregular tracks, hierarchical and mixture structures. It is one of the reference implementations in movement ecology and is cited as such. Its capability set has been essentially fixed since 2021; the last four years of releases are compiler, dependency and CRAN metadata work.
◆ Where it's heading
The development arc peaked with 1.5.0 in 2019, which brought hierarchical HMMs, discrete individual random effects and multivariate normal data streams, and effectively closed with 1.5.4 in 2021. What follows is a maintenance tail driven entirely by other people's changes: RcppArmadillo deprecating a function, Brobdingnag unexporting one, crawl dropping an import, CRAN asking for metadata edits. The package is stable in the sense that matters to its users and dormant in the sense that matters to its roadmap.
◆ Prediction
On this pattern the next release will be another upstream-forced patch rather than new modelling capability, unless a maintainer change or a new methods paper reopens development.
Alternatives to fmtr and momentuHMM
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 fmtr or momentuHMM.
MetaboAnalystR
The R engine behind MetaboAnalyst closes the gap from raw spectra to biological interpretation
betaselectr
Standardised coefficients for models where standardising everything is wrong — but the feed only links out
SSN2
Stream-network spatial models learning to run on data that no longer fits in memory
BiocManager
Bioconductor's installer, frozen at 1.30.x and tuned almost entirely through environment variables
dcurves
Decision curve analysis, settled since 2022 and now moving only when its neighbours do
See all fmtr alternatives → · See all momentuHMM alternatives →
Recent activity from fmtr and momentuHMM
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8mo agomomentuHMMDrops an unexported Brobdingnag import
- 9mo agomomentuHMMSwitches to std::isfinite after RcppArmadillo deprecation
- 10mo agofmtrMean and standard error helper, plus best-format variants
- 11mo agofmtrSAS best. format reimplemented in fapply()
- 1y agomomentuHMMCRAN-requested metadata and documentation edits
- 2y agofmtrQuarter format codes %q and %Q added
- 2y agofmtrFormat lists become readable and writable files
- 2y agofmtrDocumentation and examples expanded
- 2y agofmtrvalue() can return results as a factor
- 3y agomomentuHMMraster moved to Imports after crawl dropped it
- 4y agomomentuHMMRandom-walk stream offset bug invalidates prior fits
- 5y agomomentuHMMdoFuture becomes the default parallel backend
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between fmtr and momentuHMM?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. fmtr and momentuHMM 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 fmtr better than momentuHMM?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. fmtr and momentuHMM 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 fmtr?
Top fmtr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "fmtr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fmtr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to momentuHMM?
Top momentuHMM alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "momentuHMM alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/momentuhmm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.