Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
Comparison · Analytics
mantis vs tidytlg
A side-by-side editorial comparison of mantis and tidytlg — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
mantis vs tidytlg: at a glance
What is mantis?
Thirteen months of rOpenSci review turned a pre-release into a 1.0 with a stable API
mantis builds interactive time-series reports — heatmaps, multipanel plots, alert tables — over routinely collected data, and its release history is essentially an rOpenSci peer-review log. The package went from a January 2025 pre-release that warned of breaking changes ahead, through submission and CRAN acceptance, to a 1.0.0 in October 2025 that locked the API. Since then it has shipped only two small fixes, the most recent chasing a dplyr 1.2.0 deprecation.
What is tidytlg?
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
tidytlg generates clinical tables, listings, and graphs from tidyverse-style pipelines, maintained under the pharmaverse organisation. All four releases in the window are from a single eight-month stretch in 2023, and their content is CRAN preparation, a logging-dependency swap, and multi-file support. Release notes are merge lists rather than described changes.
mantis vs tidytlg: editorial side-by-side
mantis
0.0ANALYTICS
Thirteen months of rOpenSci review turned a pre-release into a 1.0 with a stable API
◆ Current state
mantis builds interactive time-series reports — heatmaps, multipanel plots, alert tables — over routinely collected data, and its release history is essentially an rOpenSci peer-review log. The package went from a January 2025 pre-release that warned of breaking changes ahead, through submission and CRAN acceptance, to a 1.0.0 in October 2025 that locked the API. Since then it has shipped only two small fixes, the most recent chasing a dplyr 1.2.0 deprecation.
◆ Where it's heading
The breaking changes cluster entirely below 1.0.0 and stop there: `period` became `timepoint_unit`, `save_directory`/`save_filename` became `file`, `function_call` became `expression`. Post-1.0 the work is defensive — stricter POSIXt validation, timepoint limits that clamp to the data rather than inventing plot points, daylight-savings handling. The feed reads as a package that has finished defining itself and is now maintaining compatibility with the tidyverse underneath it.
◆ Prediction
With the API frozen and review complete, expect the next release to be another upstream-compatibility fix rather than new report types. There is no signal in these entries about planned feature work.
tidytlg
0.0ANALYTICS
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
◆ Current state
tidytlg generates clinical tables, listings, and graphs from tidyverse-style pipelines, maintained under the pharmaverse organisation. All four releases in the window are from a single eight-month stretch in 2023, and their content is CRAN preparation, a logging-dependency swap, and multi-file support. Release notes are merge lists rather than described changes.
◆ Where it's heading
The visible arc is getting onto CRAN and staying installable — vignette corrections per CRAN comments, a badge, a check fix, and replacing the timber logging package with logrx. The one functional addition is multiple-file support. There has been no release since October 2023, so on this evidence the package is stable or dormant rather than actively developing.
◆ Prediction
The entries give no signal about planned work; with nothing shipped in roughly two years, the more likely next event is a maintenance release triggered by a dependency or CRAN check than a feature.
Alternatives to mantis and tidytlg
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 mantis or tidytlg.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
datasetjson
datasetjson rebuilt its object model to track the CDISC Dataset-JSON 1.1 schema.
See all mantis alternatives → · See all tidytlg alternatives →
Recent activity from mantis and tidytlg
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6mo agomantisdplyr 1.2.0 compatibility fix
- 7mo agomantisrOpenSci acceptance, plus an NA timepoint-limit fix
- 9mo agomantis1.0.0 locks the API and tightens timepoint handling
- 1y agomantisBespoke reports return to the CRAN build
- 1y agomantisFirst CRAN submission, standard reports only
- 1y agomantisrOpenSci submission; period renamed to timepoint_unit
- 2y agotidytlgSwaps the timber logger for logrx
- 3y agotidytlgMultiple-file support and table-binding fixes
- 3y agotidytlgVignette update per CRAN comments
- 3y agotidytlgFirst CRAN release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between mantis and tidytlg?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. mantis and tidytlg 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 mantis better than tidytlg?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. mantis and tidytlg 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 mantis?
Top mantis alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mantis alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mantis for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tidytlg?
Top tidytlg alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidytlg alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidytlg for the full list with editorial commentary on each.