gps2gtfs
gps2gtfs spent a release making its docs stop describing functions it does not have.
A side-by-side editorial comparison of malariasimulation and pedmut — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
An individual-based malaria model that grew a second parasite species, then froze itself for reproducibility.
malariasimulation is an individual-based transmission model whose 2.0 line added a full Plasmodium vivax implementation alongside the existing P. falciparum one, including hypnozoites, competing hazards, vivax-specific drug handling, an equilibrium solution and dedicated outputs. The most recent entry is not a code release at all but a coordinated malariaverse_01_2025 tag applied across the package suite, freezing every package at a matching version so existing analyses can be reproduced after the suite moves on. The record here is thin, two entries spanning sixteen months, so the visible cadence understates the work in the underlying repository.
pedmut turns awkward mutation models into ones the likelihood engine can actually handle.
pedmut builds and transforms the mutation models used in pedigree likelihood calculations. Its recent arc is a toolkit of model transformations: makeReversible() with three methods, makeStationary() replacing the older stabilize(), adjustRate() for tuning overall mutation rate, and lumpMutSpecial() for lumping models that strong lumpability cannot handle. The most recent release is narrow, adding a programmatic output format to getParams().
malariasimulation is an individual-based transmission model whose 2.0 line added a full Plasmodium vivax implementation alongside the existing P. falciparum one, including hypnozoites, competing hazards, vivax-specific drug handling, an equilibrium solution and dedicated outputs. The most recent entry is not a code release at all but a coordinated malariaverse_01_2025 tag applied across the package suite, freezing every package at a matching version so existing analyses can be reproduced after the suite moves on. The record here is thin, two entries spanning sixteen months, so the visible cadence understates the work in the underlying repository.
The direction visible in these entries is toward being a suite rather than a package. The snapshot tag is explicit that packages are installed together at one tag rather than mixed with main, which is the versioning discipline of a research platform whose users publish against specific model versions. On the modelling side, the vivax work was not a parameter addition but a distinct biology, with immunity structures removed rather than reused, indicating the model now carries two species with genuinely different natural histories.
The snapshot describes itself as freezing state immediately before an upcoming update, so the next visible release should be that update across the suite rather than any single package. Whether it extends the vivax model or the falciparum one is not indicated here.
pedmut builds and transforms the mutation models used in pedigree likelihood calculations. Its recent arc is a toolkit of model transformations: makeReversible() with three methods, makeStationary() replacing the older stabilize(), adjustRate() for tuning overall mutation rate, and lumpMutSpecial() for lumping models that strong lumpability cannot handle. The most recent release is narrow, adding a programmatic output format to getParams().
The consistent goal is making models satisfy the mathematical properties downstream algorithms require. Reversibility, stationarity, and lumpability each unlock something in pedprobr, and the package keeps adding ways to coerce an arbitrary model into having them. lumpMutSpecial() is explicitly incomplete, described as covering only some cases with more possibly to follow, which sets up the main open thread.
Expect additional special lumping cases to be implemented, since the package documents the current coverage as partial and pedprobr's likelihood performance depends directly on it.
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 malariasimulation or pedmut.
gps2gtfs spent a release making its docs stop describing functions it does not have.
ducksemantics puts an ontology graph and ColBERT retrieval inside DuckDB, callable from R.
dvir keeps making disaster victim identification a single call instead of a workflow.
pedbuildr reconstructs pedigrees from DNA, and it just got much faster at the search.
forrel is getting faster at the simulations forensic kinship work actually spends its time on.
pedFamilias exists to read one legacy file format, and it has that job nearly finished.
See all malariasimulation alternatives → · See all pedmut alternatives →
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. malariasimulation and pedmut 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.
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. malariasimulation and pedmut 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.
Top malariasimulation alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "malariasimulation alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/malariasimulation for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
Top pedmut alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "pedmut alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pedmut for the full list with editorial commentary on each.