rollupTree
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Comparison · Infra & APIs
midr vs PowerTOST
A side-by-side editorial comparison of midr and PowerTOST — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
midr vs PowerTOST: at a glance
What is midr?
A black-box interpreter reaches CRAN, then learns multi-class and survival responses
midr explains black-box models by fitting an interpretable surrogate through Maximum Interpretation Decomposition — main effects plus second-order interactions, with exact Shapley values for the surrogate. Two months after its first CRAN release it can take a matrix response, which covers multi-class classification and survival models, and hold collections of fitted interpretations in midlist and midrib objects for comparison.
What is PowerTOST?
A bioequivalence sample-size workhorse whose news is which regulator it now covers
PowerTOST computes power and sample size for bioequivalence and its changelog reads as a record of regulatory divergence more than statistical development. Version 1.5-3 added the Gulf Co-operation Council as a regulator setting; 1.5-4 and 1.5-6 stripped 'FDA' out of the narrow-therapeutic-index function names once China's CDE began requiring the same evaluation. The most recent release, 1.5-7, is a single fix to how nvec() splits a total sample size across sequences.
midr vs PowerTOST: editorial side-by-side
midr
0.0INFRA · APIS
A black-box interpreter reaches CRAN, then learns multi-class and survival responses
◆ Current state
midr explains black-box models by fitting an interpretable surrogate through Maximum Interpretation Decomposition — main effects plus second-order interactions, with exact Shapley values for the surrogate. Two months after its first CRAN release it can take a matrix response, which covers multi-class classification and survival models, and hold collections of fitted interpretations in midlist and midrib objects for comparison.
◆ Where it's heading
The releases move outward along two axes at once: what can be interpreted, and how much of it fits in memory. Version 0.5.3 rebuilt the fitting path to avoid materialising large design matrices and added a save.memory option; 0.6.0 widened the response from a vector to a matrix and added parametric link functions. Class and argument names were shortened in the same release, so the package is still willing to break itself this early.
◆ Prediction
With multiple models now held in one object and visualisation methods for them, comparison across models is the surface most likely to fill out next — the collection classes exist but the notes describe manipulation and plotting rather than any comparison metric.
PowerTOST
0.0INFRA · APIS
A bioequivalence sample-size workhorse whose news is which regulator it now covers
◆ Current state
PowerTOST computes power and sample size for bioequivalence and its changelog reads as a record of regulatory divergence more than statistical development. Version 1.5-3 added the Gulf Co-operation Council as a regulator setting; 1.5-4 and 1.5-6 stripped 'FDA' out of the narrow-therapeutic-index function names once China's CDE began requiring the same evaluation. The most recent release, 1.5-7, is a single fix to how nvec() splits a total sample size across sequences.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is in long maintenance with a widening regulatory surface: the statistical methods are settled, and releases arrive when an agency publishes a framework that can be expressed as a settings variant of an existing method. Function naming has been deliberately decoupled from any single agency, with the deprecated FDA-suffixed aliases carried for years before removal. Cadence has slowed to roughly one release every eighteen months.
◆ Prediction
The next release is most likely another regulator setting or a small fix; on the deprecation notice already given, the power.NTIDFDA()-style aliases are the obvious removal candidate.
Alternatives to midr and PowerTOST
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 midr or PowerTOST.
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
GeoThinneR
Spatial thinning grows a result object, and the API breaks to make room for it
See all midr alternatives → · See all PowerTOST alternatives →
Recent activity from midr and PowerTOST
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agomidrMatrix responses bring multi-class and survival models in scope ⚡
- 7mo agomidrFirst CRAN release: MID surrogate models for black-box explanation ⚡
- 7mo agomidrMemory-efficient fitting for large design matrices
- 10mo agoPowerTOSTFix for splitting total sample size across sequences
- 2y agoPowerTOSTNTID functions renamed off the FDA acronym; GCC guidance in vignettes
- 4y agoPowerTOSTpower.NTID() aliases added; FDA-suffixed names deprecated
- 5y agoPowerTOSTGulf Co-operation Council added as a regulator setting
- 5y agoPowerTOSTMaintenance release with vignette and documentation clarifications
- 5y agoPowerTOSTstringsAsFactors fix for older R in a vignette example
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between midr and PowerTOST?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. midr and PowerTOST 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 midr better than PowerTOST?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. midr and PowerTOST 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to midr?
Top midr alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "midr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/midr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to PowerTOST?
Top PowerTOST alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "PowerTOST alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/powertost for the full list with editorial commentary on each.