metatools
SDTM supplemental-qualifier merging got sturdier, then the package went quiet for two years.
Comparison · Analytics
GSODR vs pharmaversesdtm
A side-by-side editorial comparison of GSODR and pharmaversesdtm — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
GSODR vs pharmaversesdtm: at a glance
What is GSODR?
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
GSODR fetches and tidies NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day weather data for R. The 4.0.0 release made nearest_stations() return a data.table of full station metadata plus distance in kilometres rather than a character vector of station IDs, with a documented one-liner for anyone who only wanted the IDs. Nothing has shipped since March 2024.
What is pharmaversesdtm?
pharmaversesdtm is the test-data layer every pharmaverse package now builds against.
The package ships example SDTM datasets and has grown one therapeutic area at a time — ophthalmology, oncology response criteria, vaccines, metabolic, neurology, and now lymphoma under Lugano 2014. Sibling packages keep moving their internal test data here, so its release notes double as a record of what the rest of the pharmaverse is building.
GSODR vs pharmaversesdtm: editorial side-by-side
GSODR
0.0ANALYTICS
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
◆ Current state
GSODR fetches and tidies NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day weather data for R. The 4.0.0 release made nearest_stations() return a data.table of full station metadata plus distance in kilometres rather than a character vector of station IDs, with a documented one-liner for anyone who only wanted the IDs. Nothing has shipped since March 2024.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is mature and its releases read as upkeep: refreshing the internal ISD history database, dropping dependencies in favour of base and curl, and hardening the download path against station-year combinations that do not exist. The 4.0.0 change fits the same pattern of returning more structure by default rather than making callers query twice.
◆ Prediction
The most likely next release is another internal station-history refresh; there is no signal of new data sources or analysis features in these entries.
pharmaversesdtm
0.0ANALYTICS
pharmaversesdtm is the test-data layer every pharmaverse package now builds against.
◆ Current state
The package ships example SDTM datasets and has grown one therapeutic area at a time — ophthalmology, oncology response criteria, vaccines, metabolic, neurology, and now lymphoma under Lugano 2014. Sibling packages keep moving their internal test data here, so its release notes double as a record of what the rest of the pharmaverse is building.
◆ Where it's heading
Two kinds of work alternate: adding domains and biomarkers for a new indication, and making the existing data easier to reach — CSV copies under inst/extdata for non-R programmers, a datasets preview vignette, reference pages categorised by therapeutic area, variable-by-variable breakdowns. Consistency fixes against CDISC terminology and SDTM guidelines run through every release.
◆ Prediction
New therapeutic areas will keep arriving in step with the admiral extension packages that need them; the neurology and metabolic datasets landed just ahead of admiralneuro and admiralmetabolic needing them, and lymphoma looks like the next in that sequence.
Alternatives to GSODR and pharmaversesdtm
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 GSODR or pharmaversesdtm.
marquee
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
logrx
A clinical-script logger that stopped shipping after its 0.2 line, changelogs made of merged PRs.
lobstr
R's object inspector is losing its view of the internals as CRAN closes off the private C API.
giscoR
giscoR's 1.0 moved its dataset index into the cache, so new Eurostat releases arrive without a package update.
FedData
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
See all GSODR alternatives → · See all pharmaversesdtm alternatives →
Recent activity from GSODR and pharmaversesdtm
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agopharmaversesdtmLymphoma response data and geographic-atrophy tests
- 4mo agopharmaversesdtmCSV exports and microbiology domains for wider access
- 7mo agopharmaversesdtmNeurological SDTM datasets and Alzheimer's biomarkers
- 11mo agopharmaversesdtmMaintainer and licensing update
- 1y agopharmaversesdtmMetabolic SDTM datasets and PCWG3 oncology response
- 1y agopharmaversesdtmGCIG response data and automated reference pages
- 2y agoGSODRnearest_stations() returns metadata and distances
- 2y agoGSODRStation history refresh and internal tidying
- 2y agoGSODRBad station-year requests warn instead of failing the batch
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between GSODR and pharmaversesdtm?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. GSODR and pharmaversesdtm 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 GSODR better than pharmaversesdtm?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. GSODR and pharmaversesdtm 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 GSODR?
Top GSODR alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "GSODR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gsodr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to pharmaversesdtm?
Top pharmaversesdtm alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pharmaversesdtm alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pharmaversesdtm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.