STACAS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
Comparison · Analytics
lstar vs sdsfun
A side-by-side editorial comparison of lstar and sdsfun — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
lstar vs sdsfun: 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 sdsfun?
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
sdsfun collects spatial data science utilities — neighbour lists, spatial constrained clustering, discretization, dummy variable generation, geographical detector statistics and projection helpers — with the computationally heavy parts implemented in Rcpp. It was assembled quickly across late 2024, adding a function set roughly every three weeks, and has slowed since to a couple of releases a year. The most recent work is corrective: no longer initializing the RNG state at load, fixing matrix inputs misread as vectors, and clearing an Armadillo deprecation.
lstar vs sdsfun: 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.
sdsfun
0.0ANALYTICS
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
◆ Current state
sdsfun collects spatial data science utilities — neighbour lists, spatial constrained clustering, discretization, dummy variable generation, geographical detector statistics and projection helpers — with the computationally heavy parts implemented in Rcpp. It was assembled quickly across late 2024, adding a function set roughly every three weeks, and has slowed since to a couple of releases a year. The most recent work is corrective: no longer initializing the RNG state at load, fixing matrix inputs misread as vectors, and clearing an Armadillo deprecation.
◆ Where it's heading
This is infrastructure for a family of packages rather than an end-user tool, and the changelog says so directly — functions were added to support gdverse and sesp, and moran_test was migrated in from geocomplexity. That migration pattern is the defining move: capability consolidates here so the downstream packages can share it instead of each carrying its own copy. Growth has slowed as that consolidation completed, leaving correctness and dependency upkeep.
◆ Prediction
Given the package moves when its dependents need something, the next release most likely brings in another shared function or responds to a downstream requirement rather than following its own plan. Armadillo and CRAN check changes remain the reliable source of maintenance work.
Alternatives to lstar and sdsfun
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 sdsfun.
ggtrace
A debugger for ggplot2's internals, hardening its grip as the internals it traces keep moving.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
See all lstar alternatives → · See all sdsfun alternatives →
Recent activity from lstar and sdsfun
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 agolstarlstar 0.2.0 ⚡
- 1mo agolstarMeasure state inferred from content, not slot name
- 10mo agosdsfunPackage load stops touching the RNG state
- 1y agosdsfunUnified partial correlation testing and head/tails discretization
- 1y agosdsfunMissing-value handling added to linear trend removal
- 1y agosdsfunCovariate-based detrending and long-to-matrix spatial reshaping
- 1y agosdsfunSpatially constrained hierarchical clustering and SPADE estimation
- 1y agosdsfunFast geodetector q-value estimator added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between lstar and sdsfun?
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 sdsfun?
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 sdsfun?
Top sdsfun alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "sdsfun alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/sdsfun for the full list with editorial commentary on each.