rollupTree
The recursive-computation engine under massProps grows the accessors its consumer needed
Comparison · Infra & APIs
mdatools vs rstudio.prefs
A side-by-side editorial comparison of mdatools and rstudio.prefs — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-packages
mdatools vs rstudio.prefs: at a glance
What is mdatools?
mdatools spun out its cross-validation method, then came back for three-way data.
mdatools is a long-running chemometrics package covering PCA, PLS regression, SIMCA and DD-SIMCA classification, MCR resolution and a large spectral preprocessing framework. Its releases are infrequent and each one tends to carry one substantive idea plus a handful of fixes. The June release opens a direction the package had not previously taken: DD-SIMCA classification of three-way data, through PARAFAC and Tucker decompositions.
What is rstudio.prefs?
Four years dormant, rstudio.prefs returns under a new maintainer.
The package scripts RStudio's own settings — preferences, secondary repositories, keyboard shortcuts — as code you can drop into a project or an onboarding doc. After 0.1.9 in July 2022 it went quiet for four years. 0.2.0 ends that with a maintainer handoff from Daniel D. Sjoberg to S.A. van der Wulp, a shortcut-removal path, and a fix for a corrupted addins.json entry that made reassigned shortcuts fail silently.
mdatools vs rstudio.prefs: editorial side-by-side
mdatools
0.0INFRA · APIS
mdatools spun out its cross-validation method, then came back for three-way data.
◆ Current state
mdatools is a long-running chemometrics package covering PCA, PLS regression, SIMCA and DD-SIMCA classification, MCR resolution and a large spectral preprocessing framework. Its releases are infrequent and each one tends to carry one substantive idea plus a handful of fixes. The June release opens a direction the package had not previously taken: DD-SIMCA classification of three-way data, through PARAFAC and Tucker decompositions.
◆ Where it's heading
The shape of the package has been managed deliberately rather than allowed to sprawl. Procrustes cross-validation grew large enough to warrant its own package and was moved out to pcv in 0.14.0; preprocessing was consolidated in 0.12.0 into a composable prep() framework rather than a set of loose functions. Around that, the recurring work is numerical: a more stable SIMPLS implementation, cross-validation rewritten to accept user-supplied segment indices, prep.savgol() and prep.alsbasecorr() rewritten for speed, and now the baseline iteration default raised to match the web applications the maintainer also runs.
◆ Prediction
Three-way DD-SIMCA arrives with two decompositions and no companion regression or resolution methods for multiway data, so extending the multiway path to the rest of the toolkit is the obvious follow-up. The alignment of defaults with the maintainer's web applications suggests those two codebases will keep being reconciled.
rstudio.prefs
2.5INFRA · APIS
Four years dormant, rstudio.prefs returns under a new maintainer.
◆ Current state
The package scripts RStudio's own settings — preferences, secondary repositories, keyboard shortcuts — as code you can drop into a project or an onboarding doc. After 0.1.9 in July 2022 it went quiet for four years. 0.2.0 ends that with a maintainer handoff from Daniel D. Sjoberg to S.A. van der Wulp, a shortcut-removal path, and a fix for a corrupted addins.json entry that made reassigned shortcuts fail silently.
◆ Where it's heading
The through-line is teaching every setter how to unset. Secondary repositories got NULL removal back in 0.1.6; 0.2.0 extends the same convention to keyboard shortcuts. Most of the rest of 0.2.0 is arrears — a stale documentation URL that hid preferences such as enable_splash_screen, a deprecated purrr::update_list() call, and check_shortcut_consistency() erroring early on an unknown name.
◆ Prediction
With a new maintainer and refreshed GitHub Actions, the near-term work is likely more catch-up of the same kind: remaining deprecated dependencies and the preference list that fetch_rstudio_prefs() reads from RStudio's docs. Nothing in these notes points past RStudio settings as the scope.
Alternatives to mdatools and rstudio.prefs
Other Infra & APIs 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 mdatools or rstudio.prefs.
massProps
A mass-properties rollup spends a year on documentation and follows its sibling's API
writeAlizer
Six months of releases and not one of them touched the scoring models
samplr
A cognitive-science sampling package ships once, then goes quiet for eighteen months
stochvol
A Bayesian volatility sampler in its maintenance decade, paying for its own speed
midr
A black-box interpreter reaches CRAN, then learns multi-class and survival responses
See all mdatools alternatives → · See all rstudio.prefs alternatives →
Recent activity from mdatools and rstudio.prefs
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 8h agorstudio.prefsShortcut removal, an addins.json fix, and a new maintainer
- 1mo agomdatoolsDD-SIMCA classification arrives for three-way data ⚡
- 5mo agomdatoolsv. 0.15.0
- 2y agomdatoolsData frames converted to matrices automatically for model training
- 3y agomdatoolscv.scope lets centering and scaling follow the global or local set
- 3y agomdatoolsProcrustes cross-validation moves out to its own pcv package ⚡
- 3y agomdatoolsgetRegcoeffs() fixed for unscaled models; ipls() gains a full mode
- 4y agorstudio.prefsPreferences now read and written through rstudioapi
- 4y agorstudio.prefsConfig files left alone when nothing would change
- 4y agorstudio.prefsSecondary repositories can be deleted again
- 4y agorstudio.prefsRepository removal via NULL; config path helpers exported
- 5y agorstudio.prefsDocumentation, error messages, and array-type caution
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between mdatools and rstudio.prefs?
Both compete on the same themes — r-packages — within Infra & APIs. rstudio.prefs is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 mdatools better than rstudio.prefs?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. rstudio.prefs is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to mdatools?
Top mdatools alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mdatools alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mdatools for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rstudio.prefs?
Top rstudio.prefs alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rstudio.prefs alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rstudio-prefs for the full list with editorial commentary on each.