tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
gsDesign2 vs hoardr
A side-by-side editorial comparison of gsDesign2 and hoardr — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
gsDesign2 vs hoardr: at a glance
What is gsDesign2?
Group sequential design tooling that now monitors for harm, not just efficacy and futility.
gsDesign2 is the Merck-authored R package for group sequential clinical trial design under non-proportional hazards, and it has spent the last two years filling in the statistical surface its predecessor gsDesign established. Recent releases added conditional power (gs_cp, gs_cp_npe), sequential p-values, risk-difference designs with minimal risk weighting, and boundary updates from blinded interim estimates. Version 1.2.0 adds harm boundaries across the AHR and NPE design and power functions, wired through every summary and table export path.
What is hoardr?
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
hoardr manages local cache directories for other R packages — where files go, how they are keyed, whether they exist. It underpins caching in several rOpenSci data clients. The last functional additions were in 2018; everything since is a patch issued because CRAN reported a test failure or the maintainer changed.
gsDesign2 vs hoardr: editorial side-by-side
gsDesign2
3.8ANALYTICS
Group sequential design tooling that now monitors for harm, not just efficacy and futility.
◆ Current state
gsDesign2 is the Merck-authored R package for group sequential clinical trial design under non-proportional hazards, and it has spent the last two years filling in the statistical surface its predecessor gsDesign established. Recent releases added conditional power (gs_cp, gs_cp_npe), sequential p-values, risk-difference designs with minimal risk weighting, and boundary updates from blinded interim estimates. Version 1.2.0 adds harm boundaries across the AHR and NPE design and power functions, wired through every summary and table export path.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is converging on parity with gsDesign while extending past it — each release either closes a gap against the older package or adds a boundary type gsDesign never had. A visible second track is output plumbing: every new statistical feature now arrives already threaded through summary(), gs_bound_summary(), as_gt(), and as_rtf(), which is what regulatory submission work actually consumes. Performance work is steady but secondary, with gs_design_ahr() roughly 2x faster in 1.1.9.
◆ Prediction
Expect the harm boundary work to propagate into the WLR and risk-difference design families, which are the two design branches 1.2.0 left untouched, along with a vignette bridging harm boundaries to the remaining gsDesign test types.
hoardr
0.0ANALYTICS
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
◆ Current state
hoardr manages local cache directories for other R packages — where files go, how they are keyed, whether they exist. It underpins caching in several rOpenSci data clients. The last functional additions were in 2018; everything since is a patch issued because CRAN reported a test failure or the maintainer changed.
◆ Where it's heading
This is infrastructure that has reached its final shape. Three of the last three releases were reactive: two responses to CRAN test-failure notifications, one to a maintainer handover. The single behavioural change in that stretch — forward slashes in paths on every operating system — is a consistency fix for downstream packages rather than a feature. Its release cadence is set by CRAN's checks, not by demand.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by another CRAN check failure rather than by new functionality, matching every release since 2018.
Alternatives to gsDesign2 and hoardr
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 gsDesign2 or hoardr.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
datasetjson
datasetjson rebuilt its object model to track the CDISC Dataset-JSON 1.1 schema.
See all gsDesign2 alternatives → · See all hoardr alternatives →
Recent activity from gsDesign2 and hoardr
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 9d agogsDesign2Harm boundaries land in AHR and NPE group sequential designs ⚡
- 1mo agogsDesign2Conditional power, sequential p-values, and minimal risk weighting
- 5mo agogsDesign2gs_design_ahr() can output spending time
- 8mo agogsDesign2S3 class refactor and futility boundary vignette
- 11mo agogsDesign2h1_spending for WLR power, info_scale across fixed designs
- 1y agogsDesign2WLR design spending default corrected to information fraction
- 1y agohoardrPaths use forward slashes on every platform
- 2y agohoardrTest-only patch for a CRAN failure
- 3y agohoardrPatch release for maintainer handover
- 7y agohoardrFixes cache paths leaking between HoardClient instances
- 7y agohoardrFile-existence checks and full-path cache configuration
- 9y agohoardrCRAN disk-writing policy compliance
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between gsDesign2 and hoardr?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. gsDesign2 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 gsDesign2 better than hoardr?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. gsDesign2 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 Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to gsDesign2?
Top gsDesign2 alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gsDesign2 alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gsdesign2 for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to hoardr?
Top hoardr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "hoardr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hoardr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.