nflreadr
The nflverse data loader, whose releases are dictated by the NFL calendar and CRAN's archive policy
Comparison · Analytics
lstar vs qtl2convert
A side-by-side editorial comparison of lstar and qtl2convert — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
lstar vs qtl2convert: at a glance
What is lstar?
A single-cell data store commits to Zarr v3 and range-readable hosting across four language surfaces
lstar stores single-cell data behind one C++ core with Python, R and JS/WASM bindings, and ships a browser viewer that reads the store directly. Zarr v3 is now the default on-disk format across all four surfaces, with zstd compression and sharding that packs many chunks into fewer objects. Viewer stores are compressed per field and resolved at chunk granularity, so a hosted viewer fetches only what it displays. The tag stream carries both lstar and lstar-sc releases.
What is qtl2convert?
A conversion utility in pure maintenance mode, tracking R-devel breakage release by release
qtl2convert is the format-shim of the R/qtl2 ecosystem: it moves genotype probabilities and genetic maps between DOQTL, R/qtl and R/qtl2 representations. The last three releases contain no new conversion functions at all — 0.32 fixed a C string comparison flagged by CRAN, 0.34 restored attribute-clearing that R-devel 4.7 changed underneath the package, and 0.36 adjusted parallel core defaults plus a test tweak. The functional surface has been stable since 0.26 added cross2_ril_to_genril().
lstar vs qtl2convert: editorial side-by-side
lstar
5.0ANALYTICS
A single-cell data store commits to Zarr v3 and range-readable hosting across four language surfaces
◆ Current state
lstar stores single-cell data behind one C++ core with Python, R and JS/WASM bindings, and ships a browser viewer that reads the store directly. Zarr v3 is now the default on-disk format across all four surfaces, with zstd compression and sharding that packs many chunks into fewer objects. Viewer stores are compressed per field and resolved at chunk granularity, so a hosted viewer fetches only what it displays. The tag stream carries both lstar and lstar-sc releases.
◆ Where it's heading
The through-line is making a hosted store cheap to read. Sharding addresses the file-per-chunk explosion that makes many-chunk arrays awkward to host; per-field compression with chunk-granular resolution means colouring an embedding by one gene fetches one column rather than an array. The 0.2.x patches are the cost of maintaining four surfaces at once — a WASM heap crash that only browsers exercise, and a count-basis orientation defect where all three surfaces normalized in memory and none owned the on-disk layout.
◆ Prediction
The orientation bug's root cause — no surface owning the on-disk representation while all three normalized in memory — is the kind of gap that usually produces a validation or ownership change rather than another point fix.
qtl2convert
0.0ANALYTICS
A conversion utility in pure maintenance mode, tracking R-devel breakage release by release
◆ Current state
qtl2convert is the format-shim of the R/qtl2 ecosystem: it moves genotype probabilities and genetic maps between DOQTL, R/qtl and R/qtl2 representations. The last three releases contain no new conversion functions at all — 0.32 fixed a C string comparison flagged by CRAN, 0.34 restored attribute-clearing that R-devel 4.7 changed underneath the package, and 0.36 adjusted parallel core defaults plus a test tweak. The functional surface has been stable since 0.26 added cross2_ril_to_genril().
◆ Where it's heading
This is a package whose release cadence is driven by its dependencies, not its roadmap. Two of the last three releases exist purely because upstream R or CRAN's check suite moved; the maintainer responds within weeks and ships. The cores=0 change in 0.36 is the only user-visible behavior shift in over a year, and it landed simultaneously in sibling package qtl2fst — this is a maintainer-wide convention change, not a qtl2convert decision.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by another R-devel or CRAN check change rather than a feature request, following the same pattern as 0.32 and 0.34.
Alternatives to lstar and qtl2convert
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 lstar or qtl2convert.
susier
Fine-mapping workhorse susieR spends its releases hunting null-effect trimming bugs
UCell
A rank-based gene signature scorer that has grown by adapting to whatever object format single-cell R uses next
detectseparation
A diagnostic package that generalized past its own name, then learned to say which kind of separation it found
brglm2
A bias-reduction package reaches 1.0 by adding an estimator built for high-dimensional logistic regression
bayestools
The JAGS toolkit under RoBMA, shipping the standardization machinery its downstream rewrite needed
See all lstar alternatives → · See all qtl2convert alternatives →
Recent activity from lstar and qtl2convert
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 21d agolstarViewer count-basis orientation fixed; existing stores need re-prep
- 26d agolstarWASM viewer crash on resizable heaps fixed
- 1mo agoqtl2convertcores=0 now leaves one core free instead of taking all
- 1mo agolstarlstar 0.2.0 ⚡
- 1mo agolstarMeasure state inferred from content, not slot name
- 2mo agoqtl2convertAttribute-clearing fix for R-devel 4.7
- 3mo agoqtl2convertC string comparison fix in encode_geno()
- 2y agoqtl2convertBug fix in probs_doqtl_to_qtl2()
- 4y agoqtl2convertMaintenance release for a NEWS.md typo
- 4y agoqtl2convertAdds cross2_ril_to_genril() for RIL cross conversion
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between lstar and qtl2convert?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. lstar is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 lstar better than qtl2convert?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. lstar is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 lstar?
Top lstar alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "lstar alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/lstar for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to qtl2convert?
Top qtl2convert alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "qtl2convert alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/qtl2convert for the full list with editorial commentary on each.