incase
A safer case_when that keeps hardening its guarantees while realigning to tidyverse naming.
Comparison · Analytics
forrel vs TidyDensity
A side-by-side editorial comparison of forrel and TidyDensity — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
forrel vs TidyDensity: at a glance
What is forrel?
forrel is getting faster at the simulations forensic kinship work actually spends its time on.
forrel handles forensic pedigree analysis: kinship likelihood ratios, profile simulation, relationship checking, and missing person calculations. Version 1.9.0 synced with pedtools 2.11.0's loop handling, which the release notes credit with enabling complex pedigrees that were previously intractable, and moved profileSim() to mirai for parallelism. It also added fEstimate() for inbreeding coefficients and parentChildLikelihood() as a fast path for the simplest case.
What is TidyDensity?
A distribution catalogue that grows by one family at a time, and rarely breaks anything.
TidyDensity generates tidy-format random data from statistical distributions, with parameter estimation, AIC calculation, summary tables and automatic plotting for each one. Its releases follow a fixed template — breaking changes, new features, minor fixes — and the breaking section is usually empty. Growth comes distribution by distribution: Bernoulli, Burr, triangular, chi-square, zero-truncated negative binomial and others each arrive with a matching set of param_estimate, aic and stats_tbl helpers.
forrel vs TidyDensity: editorial side-by-side
forrel
0.0ANALYTICS
forrel is getting faster at the simulations forensic kinship work actually spends its time on.
◆ Current state
forrel handles forensic pedigree analysis: kinship likelihood ratios, profile simulation, relationship checking, and missing person calculations. Version 1.9.0 synced with pedtools 2.11.0's loop handling, which the release notes credit with enabling complex pedigrees that were previously intractable, and moved profileSim() to mirai for parallelism. It also added fEstimate() for inbreeding coefficients and parentChildLikelihood() as a fast path for the simplest case.
◆ Where it's heading
Two long threads run through the window. One is making the common operations cheap: faster simulations through reorganized likelihood calculations, a dedicated parent-child path, dropped map attribute preservation, log-likelihoods to avoid underflow in kinshipLR(). The other is making relationship checking presentable, with checkPairwise() growing ggplot2 and plotly output, verbal relationship descriptions, and bootstrap p-values. Reference data is maintained alongside both, with the FORCE SNP panel completed and an X-chromosomal counterpart added.
◆ Prediction
With profileSim() on mirai and the loop handling synced, the next likely step is extending mirai parallelism to the other simulation-heavy functions such as exclusionPower() and the bootstrap in checkPairwise().
TidyDensity
0.0ANALYTICS
A distribution catalogue that grows by one family at a time, and rarely breaks anything.
◆ Current state
TidyDensity generates tidy-format random data from statistical distributions, with parameter estimation, AIC calculation, summary tables and automatic plotting for each one. Its releases follow a fixed template — breaking changes, new features, minor fixes — and the breaking section is usually empty. Growth comes distribution by distribution: Bernoulli, Burr, triangular, chi-square, zero-truncated negative binomial and others each arrive with a matching set of param_estimate, aic and stats_tbl helpers.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is filling out a matrix rather than changing shape — every new distribution gets the same four or five companion functions, so the surface grows predictably and the design does not. What variation exists comes from utilities that work across distributions: MCMC sampling, bootstrap helpers, time series conversion, distribution comparison. The two genuine breaking changes in this window were both internal reworks, moving generation onto data.table and rewriting quantile normalization for speed.
◆ Prediction
The established pattern of adding a distribution with its full helper set is the most likely continuation. Recent releases have been small, suggesting the catalogue is approaching the distributions its author considers worth covering.
Alternatives to forrel and TidyDensity
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 forrel or TidyDensity.
reda
A mature recurrent-event toolkit in careful maintenance, shedding weight rather than adding surface.
cfbfastr
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
rnpn
The USA phenology data client rebuilt its entire stack and stopped handing users -9999 as a number.
GeneNMF
GeneNMF rebuilt how it derives meta-programs, changing every result it had produced.
rempsyc
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
See all forrel alternatives → · See all TidyDensity alternatives →
Recent activity from forrel and TidyDensity
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoforrelmirai parallelism and faster profile simulation
- 11mo agoTidyDensityquantile_normalize rewritten, changing its output
- 1y agoTidyDensityDocumentation corrections for two distribution functions
- 1y agoforrelFORCE SNP panel completed and X-chromosomal set added
- 1y agoforrelrankProfiles() and access to special lumping
- 1y agoforrelacrossComps argument and readFam() unexported
- 1y agoforrelcheckPairwise() overhauled with p-values and new plot backends
- 2y agoTidyDensityZero-truncated distributions and AIC helpers added in bulk
- 2y agoTidyDensityMCMC sampling and quantile normalization join the utilities
- 2y agoTidyDensityGeneration moves to data.table; native pipe raises the R floor
- 2y agoforrelFamilias interoperability split into pedFamilias
- 2y agoTidyDensityDistributions convertible to time series objects
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between forrel and TidyDensity?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. forrel and TidyDensity 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 forrel better than TidyDensity?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. forrel and TidyDensity 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 forrel?
Top forrel alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "forrel alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/forrel for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to TidyDensity?
Top TidyDensity alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "TidyDensity alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidydensity for the full list with editorial commentary on each.