nflreadr
The nflverse data loader, whose releases are dictated by the NFL calendar and CRAN's archive policy
Comparison · Analytics
lstar vs susier
A side-by-side editorial comparison of lstar and susier — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
lstar vs susier: 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 susier?
Fine-mapping workhorse susieR spends its releases hunting null-effect trimming bugs
susieR implements the Sum of Single Effects regression model for variable selection and fine-mapping, widely used in statistical genetics. The recent releases are a tight run of correctness work concentrated in one area: null effect trimming. Version 0.15.55 fixed trimming under the Servin-Stephens residual variance method, 0.15.56 fixed it again for non-uniform prior weights fourteen minutes later, 0.15.57 corrected an ELBO null space term for RSS with X and a matrix symmetry check, and 0.15.58 addressed an alpha0/beta0 issue. Version 0.16.0 migrates the C++ bindings from Rcpp to cpp11 with cpp11armadillo.
lstar vs susier: 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.
susier
0.0ANALYTICS
Fine-mapping workhorse susieR spends its releases hunting null-effect trimming bugs
◆ Current state
susieR implements the Sum of Single Effects regression model for variable selection and fine-mapping, widely used in statistical genetics. The recent releases are a tight run of correctness work concentrated in one area: null effect trimming. Version 0.15.55 fixed trimming under the Servin-Stephens residual variance method, 0.15.56 fixed it again for non-uniform prior weights fourteen minutes later, 0.15.57 corrected an ELBO null space term for RSS with X and a matrix symmetry check, and 0.15.58 addressed an alpha0/beta0 issue. Version 0.16.0 migrates the C++ bindings from Rcpp to cpp11 with cpp11armadillo.
◆ Where it's heading
The version-number churn understates how narrow this work is — four consecutive releases touching the same trimming and residual-variance machinery suggests one area where the implementation and the intended behavior had drifted apart. The 0.16.0 binding migration is the only structural change, and it is invisible to users while mattering for build portability and long-term maintenance. Development is clearly active, with automated release tooling and dependency bumps flowing through the same stream.
◆ Prediction
With the binding migration just landed, near-term releases are likely to address fallout from it alongside continued fixes in the same trimming and residual-variance code.
Alternatives to lstar and susier
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 susier.
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
robma
RoBMA 4.0 tears out its own constructor surface and rebuilds on one class hierarchy
See all lstar alternatives → · See all susier alternatives →
Recent activity from lstar and susier
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
- 3mo agosusierMigrates C++ bindings from Rcpp to cpp11 and cpp11armadillo
- 3mo agosusierFixes alpha0/beta0 handling under Servin-Stephens
- 4mo agosusierCorrects the null space ELBO term for RSS with X
- 5mo agosusierFixes null effect trimming with non-uniform prior weights
- 5mo agosusierFixes null effect trimming under Servin-Stephens estimation
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between lstar and susier?
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 susier?
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 susier?
Top susier alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "susier alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/susier for the full list with editorial commentary on each.